


Co-consciousness

by Laurawrzz



Series: Destiny/Memento Collection [8]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Alien Planet, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Crimes & Criminals, Dark Doctor (Doctor Who), Destiny/Memento, F/M, Fluff, Gallifreyan Language (Doctor Who), Gen, Giant Spiders, Giants, Hurt/Comfort, Married The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Medical Procedures, Murder, Outer Space, Paralysis, Parents Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Post-Episode AU: s04e13 Journey's End, Prison, Slavery, Smut, Temporary Character Death - Jack Harkness, Tenth Doctor Angst, Tenth Doctor Era, Tenth Doctor Whump, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Fluff, The Doctor (Doctor Who) Whump, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:21:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 36
Words: 98,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25915786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurawrzz/pseuds/Laurawrzz
Summary: He reached Jack and lifted the knife, resting it lightly on Jack’s exposed neck.He was being watched. He couldn’t even mouth sorry.Jack just nodded slightly.For Rose’s benefit, the Doctor closed his eyes. Once more his other senses increased tenfold. He felt the knife in his hand, heard Jack’s lungs expanding and contracting, and his heart racing.In one swift movement, he slit his best friend’s throat.~ ΘΣ ~A freak accident has left Rose’s consciousness trapped inside the Doctor’s head, and the only solution appears to be on the most criminal-infested and hostile planet in the universe. With Jack by his side, the Doctor must go there and find the cure before his brain splits in two and kills both him and Rose.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/Other(s), Martha Jones/Mickey Smith, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Destiny/Memento Collection [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/268567
Comments: 12
Kudos: 24





	1. Oo Stick You

**Author's Note:**

> Rework continuum! Originally posted on FF.net too many years ago, I've smartened it up and reposted for AO3.
> 
> I won't lie, this is the eighth in a series so if you haven't at least checked out the long summaries of the previous stories you may be a little bit lost! Any questions, please ask away :D
> 
> This series is an unashamed epic TenRose baby continuing collection, that utilises every tiny tidbit of Who canon, both in the show and in its extended lore. It's also exceptionally whumpy and some smidgens of smut enroute. So if that isn't your thing, run awaaaay! :o
> 
> At the end of the previous story, after the Doctor's regeneration into the same body Rose's consciousness has become trapped inside his head.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor slowly gets used to the constant sound of Rose talking in his head as Martha checks his physical state after his regeneration.

_ Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! _

The Doctor jerked awake at the sound of the shrill alarm seemingly spearing itself right through his skull and directly into his auditory cortex. With his hearts racing he immediately scrambled up to find the offending clock.

_ Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! _

In a desperate one-handed dance he managed to find the bedside table, slamming his palm down in alternate places in order to stop the shrieking. He couldn’t seem to find it, and unwillingly opened his eyes to have a look, only to remember that he didn’t actually have an alarm clock.

_ Good mornin’!  _

Rose, he realised begrudgingly. He collapsed back down into the bed, running his hands down his face. ‘Can you not do that?’ he asked her seriously, his eyes automatically closing again to fall back to sleep.

_ No! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! _

‘Rose!’ he moaned.

_ Time to get up and get me back into my body! Beep! Beep! _

‘Just five more minutes …’

_ No! Get up, else I’ll start singin’ annoyin’ pop songs in your head. _

‘You wouldn't.’

_ I so would.  _

‘I don't believe you.’

_ Hi this is my friend Daphne, and I’m Celeste! Oo, stick you, your momma too, and your daddy! Oo, stick you, your momma too, and your daddy! _

‘Rose!’

_ Yo mama, yo daddy, yo greasy greasy grandmammy! You got a hole in your panty got a big behind like Frankenstein, going beep beep beep down Sesame Street! _

‘Rose!!!’

_ Toot toot toot wear army boots! In your ear with a can of beer! Up your butt with a coconut! You go girl! Ehhhh … oh! _

‘All right, I’m going, I’m going!’ the Doctor insisted, pulling back the cover and forcing himself to his feet. The TARDIS lights raised for him as he automatically headed for the bathroom only half-conscious, moving to the toilet and about to drop his boxers when he suddenly stopped.

_ What? _

‘Can you not look?’ he asked.

_ Why not? I’ve seen it about a million times y’know. _

‘I know, but this is an invasion of privacy.’

_ I can't help it, I’m seeing through your eyes.  _

‘I'll close my eyes then.’

_ You're gonna pee with your eyes closed? _

‘I'll point in the general direction, I'm sure gravity will do the rest.’

_ Come on, grow up. _

He sighed, dropped his boxers and looked down.

‘What did you do to me!?’ he yelped.

_ What? _

‘It’s …’

_ Bigger? _

‘Yes!’

_ It wasn't me. _

‘Yes, it was, you gave me the body template to regenerate from!’

_ Okay, so yeah it was me, sorry. _

‘What else did you do?’ he wondered seriously, quickly pulling up his boxers again and moving to the mirror. His brand new old face stared back at him, currently looking quite stupefied. His skin was smoother than before, his eyes seemed to be bigger, and the chaotic mess of bed hair was only serving to exacerbate his unbelievably thick hair. He paused, for a moment just staring at his reflection.

_ What? _

‘My face isn't right.’

_ Looks like a face to me. _

‘My eyes are bigger.’

_ They’re fine. _

‘I’m younger.’

_ That’s okay. _

‘My hair is ...’ He paused, running his fingers through the unruly brown locks. ‘My hair is  _ huge _ . What do I do with it?’

_ Just leave it like that, yeah? _

‘Sure!’ the Doctor began insincerely. ‘I'm the Doctor, I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I’m the man who’s going to save your lives and do you have any hair gel because you know what? This hot weather is giving me so much frizz!’

_ Rose laughed in his head. Use my dry shampoo with hairspray to set it. _

‘You’ve thought about this, haven’t you?’ the Doctor realised. ‘You’ve been thinking about this for … how long?’

_ While you were sleepin’. _

The Doctor frowned at that. ‘Wait … You were awake when I was asleep?’

_ Um, yeah …? Is that bad? _

‘Err, not so much bad,’ the Doctor told her, frowning slightly at his reflection, which frowned right back. ‘Just odd.’

_ If this has never happened before how’d you know it’s not meant to be like that? _

‘I don’t,’ the Doctor confessed. ‘But you’re conscious when I’m not. If your consciousness isn’t connected to mine, where is it connected to?’

There was a loud, resounding silence in the Doctor’s head. Thankfully it was broken by a sudden knocking on the door of the adjoining bedroom.

‘Doctor! Are you awake? Martha wants to check you over!’ Jack called.

‘Give me twenty minutes!’ the Doctor called back.

* * *

Showered, shaved, dressed and deciding to deal with his new body later, the Doctor met Jack in the corridor, who took his arm immediately. 

‘Better hurry, don’t want to annoy the heavily pregnant lady,’ he said, leading the Time Lord down the corridor. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Pretty good,’ the Doctor said, and for the first time in a long while he wasn’t lying. After becoming chronically ill his body had died, though he and Rose had been able to figure out a way in which he could regenerate into the same body. Unfortunately that had had cataclysmic repercussions for him in the form of having the minds of his two bodies fighting inside his head. Rose had taken it upon herself to wade through his most deepest and darkest memories, piecing him together to get him back. She had then sacrificed herself to complete him, resulting in the equally as cataclysmic repercussion of having her consciousness trapped inside his head. His brother Braxiatel had been in the library most of the afternoon trying to find a way they could get her back inside her comatose body, but he was yet to emerge.

Halfway down the corridor he suddenly heard a sudden happy cry of a little girl from close by. Leah, he realised. 

‘Wait,’ the Doctor told Jack, pulling his arm away. ‘I need to talk to Leah and Alex.’

'Are you telling them about Rose?'

'Yep,' the Doctor confirmed, heading for the door. He quickly noticed Jack was following him. 'What?'

'Oh, I've gotta see this explanation,' Jack replied, grinning.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, and headed in through the door where Leah and Alex were on the sofa, the credits of Peppa Pig rolling. They were fighting over the remote. Jackie was desperately trying to yell at them to stop, but it was having little to no effect as she was already quite busy with trying to stop Anwen, Gwen and Rhys' daughter, and Kiana, the Doctor and Rose's adopted daughter, from throwing building bricks at each other.

The Doctor swooped in immediately, prising Leah and Alex apart. 

'Stop fighting, alright?' he told them.

'But Alex won't gimme the remote!' Leah protested, barely registering her father. Alex however immediately stopped and just stared up at his dad, his big blue eyes shining. The Doctor smiled at him, dropping to one knee in front of them both.

Leah abruptly realised Alex had stopped fighting her, and instead turned to see the Doctor kneeling there. Immediately she shrieked in delight and grabbed onto him in a three-way hug with her brother. 'Daddy!' 

'Hello,' the Doctor said, beaming at them both when he pulled away. 'Play nice, okay? I don't like it when people don't play nice.'

'Where have you  _ been!?' _ Leah demanded to know, her little four-year-old hands on her hips in a perfect posture of her grandmother. 'You’re s’posed to be  _ responsible  _ for us, mmkay?'

'Err,  _ you've _ been asleep!' the Doctor pointed out indignantly. 'And I'm here now. But there's something I need to tell you both.'

'Did you s’plode the Tardis again?' Leah asked.

The Doctor's brow furrowed. 'No, there ...'

'Is mummy mad at you again for s'ploding the Tardis?'

The Doctor glanced at Jack, who was struggling not to laugh. 'No ...'

'Is the Tardis mad at you again for making her s'plode?'

'No, there's been a ...'

'Is it the Judoon again? Are they mad at you?'

'No, Leah...'

‘Is granny mad at you again?’

'Leah ..!'

‘Is everyone else mad at you again? Did you s’plode them?’

‘Leah!’ the Doctor yelped, hand on her arm. ‘No one’s mad at me again and nothing’s exploded again! Look, you know me and mum were trying to fix me? Well it worked and I’ve regenerated, but there was a problem. Something happened, which has put mum’s consciousness in my head and for now it’s staying there.’

Leah frowned, experimentally poking her father’s head and staring at him, scrutinising. ‘Mummy?’ she asked. ‘Is she gonna come out?’

‘We’re figuring something out,’ he assured her. ‘But you can talk to her anytime you want. Just talk to her through me.’

_ Tell them I love them. _

‘Mum says she loves you both,’ the Doctor continued, looking at each of them in turn. ‘And I’m sorry for the mess we’ve been in recently.’

‘That’s okay!’ Leah assured him, reaching up for another three-way hug with Alex. After a few moments the Doctor drew back, took hold of the remote and gave it to Alex.

‘Alex’s choice,’ he told them as Alex fumbled to straighten the remote up.

‘What!?’ Leah yelped. ‘That’s mine!’

‘You just watched Peppa Pig!’ the Doctor told her seriously. ‘It’s Alex’s turn.’

‘But …’

‘Share! Sharing is good! We like sharing!’ the Doctor purposely enthused, waving his arms slightly to try and communicate his point.

Leah harrumphed, folding her arms and leaning back against the sofa as Alex began to flick through the channels with clumsy toddler thumbs. He continued to flick for a few moments, before looking at his older sister, putting it back onto Peppa Pig and returning the remote to her.

‘Oh?’ Leah asked, confused. 

‘Sharing s’good,’ Alex said quietly. The rare verbal input from the toddler stunned everyone in the room, apart from Leah.

‘But it’s your turn,’ Leah insisted, trying to give the remote back to him.

Alex just shook his head, refusing to take it.

‘There’s my offspring!’ the Doctor enthused, ruffling their hair in tandem. Both of them patted their hair down indignantly. ‘Now I need to go. Play nice.’

He got up, kissing them both before leaving the room into the corridor with Jack in tow. Jackie followed, her jaw agape and pointing in the vague direction of the two children.

‘What?’ the Doctor asked her.

‘They just  _ accepted  _ that?’ she asked seriously.

‘What?’

‘That Rose is in your ‘ead?’

‘A million weirder things have happened in this place,’ Jack inputted from the side.

Jackie sighed a hefty sigh. ‘Well, I s’pose. Are you all clear? Are you healthy, sweetheart?’ she asked the Doctor.

‘We’re just heading to the infirmary to check his regeneration went okay,’ Jack told her.

‘Well you’d better ‘urry up,’ Jackie told him. ‘And bloody take care of yourself cos you’re carryin’ my Rose in there!’

_ Leave him alone, mum. _

‘Leave him alone, mum,’ the Doctor repeated out loud.

Jackie blinked, looking at him in confusion before clocking that he was repeating what Rose was saying.

'Oh, this is too weird, even for you,' Jackie told him. 

'Thanks ...?' the Doctor wondered.

There was a loud yell from the TV room of an upset toddler, and without hesitation Jackie ran back in, yelling a menagerie of children’s names in a trivial effort to get order.

'Maybe someone should help her,’ Jack mused, watching her go.

The Doctor and Jack glanced at each other, sharing a small shrug.

Hey!

‘Okay, okay,’ the Doctor conceded to the voice in his head. ‘Jack, find someone, I’ll head to the Infirmary.’

They nodded at each other and turned to part ways, when suddenly the Doctor felt a tugging at his shirt. He looked down to see Leah standing there, looking up at him.

‘Daddy.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Did you say you regenerated?’

‘Yep,’ he said, gazing at her.

‘Did it hurt?’

The Doctor paused. Her oddly reflective brown eyes were gazing back at him, full of fear and anticipation.

_ Be honest. _

He nodded at Rose’s voice, and knelt down to his almost five-year-old daughter. ‘Yes,’ he told her. ‘It always hurts.’

‘I’m scared,’ she admitted smally.

‘Why are you scared?’

‘Cos I’ll have to regenerate and it’ll hurt,’ she muttered.

‘Hey,’ he said, hugging her and placing a kiss on her forehead. ‘You’re not going to regenerate for a very, very long time, because I’m not letting you get hurt.’

‘But what if I do?’

‘You won’t.’

‘But what if I  _ do?’ _

For a moment he just gazed at her, pushing back her long brown hair over her shoulder. She was growing so fast. Her little face was beginning to define itself; looking more and more like Rose everyday. Her little fingers were becoming longer, she was becoming harder to carry and her Gallifreyan genetic inheritance ensured her intelligence and social maturation was enough to keep him on his toes. 

He was sure only yesterday she couldn’t pronounce Christmas or ketchup. 

‘I forget how fast you’re growing,’ he admitted.

Me too.

‘I’m one metre three centimetres!’ she told him proudly.

He smiled at that as he just thought for a moment, briefly flicking through his options. If she was to regenerate successfully, she would need all the training she could get now the Academies weren’t around. His lifestyle had put her in more danger than he ever cared to admit. He couldn’t keep trying to hide her from it. ‘You’re becoming really mature. I’ll prepare you for regeneration,’ he decided.

‘When?’

‘Once we’ve sorted out mum.’

She nodded. ‘Okay!’ she said brightly, hugged him, and left in a skip back into the TV room.

The Doctor sighed, standing up and looking at Jack.

‘She’s gotta learn,’ Jack told him honestly.

‘I kind of wish she didn’t,’ the Doctor confessed.

Jack rested a hand on his shoulder. ‘How are you going to teach her about regeneration?’

‘I’ll make a regeneration simulator,’ the Doctor said. ‘A machine you can plug into and practise regenerating.’

_ Will it hurt her? _

‘Will it hurt her?’

‘It will only hurt if I program it to,’ the Doctor said to answer both of them, sighing a little. ‘Can’t believe I’m going to teach my daughter how to die.’

‘She needs it,’ Jack assured him. ‘You don’t wanna be caught out. If she doesn’t practice she might not even be able to regenerate.’

‘I know,’ the Doctor muttered. 

Just in case.

He nodded again, and left to the infirmary.

* * *

‘It just can’t … you’re not making sense!’ 

‘I’m not?’ the Doctor wondered, still pounding away on the running machine he’d been on for a solid five minutes now, sensors fixed to his chest monitoring his heart rates and blood pressure. 

‘Your heart rates are barely going up!’ she told him, furiously checking the monitor.

The Doctor just grinned, still running. Jack was in the corner, smiling away as he gazed at the Time Lord.

‘This isn’t right,’ Martha breathed, slipping through her clipboard papers and comparing her notes. ‘Is this normal? For you to have this much stamina after regeneration?’

The Doctor, somehow, managed to shrug while he was still running. ‘Might just be my residual cellular energy having a biological party before it settles down.’

‘So it might not last?’ Jack wondered.

_ Oh, you’d better get me back into my body, quick, yeah? _

‘Won’t last that long,’ the Doctor muttered to the voice in his head.

Jack laughed, only hearing the Doctor's reply. ‘Rose just make a dirty joke?’

‘Don’t encourage her,’ the Doctor said seriously.

‘Hey, her words, not mine,’ Jack protested, hands in the air.

‘Can you three stop flirting?’ Martha asked seriously. ‘I’m trying to work here!’

Jack just laughed.

The Doctor had been delightfully surprised at the speed at which the others had accepted the concept that Rose’s consciousness was stuck inside his head. Just a glance across the infirmary was the sight of Rose’s body lying on a bed comatose, her body kept alive by a menagerie of machines until they were able to get her consciousness back inside her. 

‘So you’re at the peak of your health now, and it’s basically all downhill from here,’ Jack summed up.

‘Pretty much,’ the Doctor agreed. 

‘You’ve been pretty ill, it’s a nice change,’ Jack told him. 

‘You’re telling me,’ the Doctor said, still running. ‘Martha, can I get off now?’

‘Oh, yes, sorry,’ Martha said. The Doctor hopped off the machine with ease, peeling the pads off of his chest and giving them back to her before pulling his shirt back on and idly stretching his arms.

‘So what’s the diagnosis?’ Jack asked.

‘Well, he’s got the body of an athlete,’ Martha said, still checking through her notes. 

The Doctor took one look at Jack. ‘Don’t.’

Jack sighed, disappointed, just as Brax entered the infirmary with a cheery wave.

‘How are you doing?’ Brax asked his brother, moving forward to check Martha’s notes.

‘Fit as a finkelgruber,’ the Doctor informed him, jumping up and down on the spot.

‘He’s perfectly healthy. Almost too healthy,’ Martha added as an afterthought.

Brax nodded, checking the notes before going to his brother and stopping him from jumping up and down with a hand on his shoulder. ‘How’s the post-regeneration?’

‘Best one yet,’ the Doctor told him.

‘No abnormalities?’

‘Apart from my wife talking inside my head?’

Brax pulled a face. ‘Yes, apart from that.’

‘Nope,’ the Doctor concluded, stretching again. ‘Did you find something to fix this?’

Brax pulled a face. ‘We need to talk. Let’s head to the living room.’

The Doctor looked at him, taking in his somewhat grim expression. The living room was fast becoming the place where lots of serious things were said and he didn’t like that very much. 'Better idea,' he said. 'Kitchen. I'm hungry.'

_ You just ate before your nap! What's wrong? _

'Energy deficit?' Brax asked, checking him again.

The Doctor pushed him away. 'Will you all stop worrying? I just prefer it if people break bad news over toast.'


	2. Bad News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brax describes the next steps in fixing the Doctor and Rose’s problem, but it’s not going to be easy. Leah fights her corner to be able to go on an adventure.

They all went to the kitchen, where the Doctor made himself seven pieces of toast, smearing them all to death with cheap Tesco jam just the way Rose liked it. Brax, Martha and Jack just watched in fascination until he sat down at the table, his plate stacked with toast and a piping hot cup of Yorkshire tea to accompany it.

Finally he looked up at Brax, a piece of toast in hand. 'I'm ready, what's the bad news?'

'Not bad news, indifferent news,' Brax told him. 'It took some time, but I found a previous case of this in the library.' 

'And?'

'This,' Brax said, pointing at a particularly thick and dusty-looking book on the table. 'Just one recorded instance in Time Lord history. It occurred when a Time Lady was killed at the point of bonding. Her consciousness went into her husband and he reported having her talking inside his head.'

'What did he do?' Jack asked quickly.

'He went through all the hospitallers on Gallifrey, all the healers in Kasterborous, then beyond Kasterborous. Eventually became so desperate he ... He went to Sirrus.'

'You don't mean the pleasure planet Sirrus, do you?' the Doctor supposed with a sigh, finishing off his first slice of toast and suckign the ends of his fingers.

'Sirrus?' Martha asked.

'One of the most dangerous and criminal-filled planets in the known universe,' Jack told her. 'It's ... absolutely full of ex-cons.'

'Not even the Shadow Proclamation dared to touch it,' the Doctor added.

Martha looked at him nervously, before looking back at Brax. 'So then what did this Time Lord do?'

‘Apparently he found a healer there, an old woman called Geranda. She did something, it does not say what, but whatever happened next didn't get documented,' Brax told them. 'But he's in the census ten years later, so he survived.'

'And his wife?' Martha prompted.

'Does not say.'

'Never does, does it,' Jack moaned.

'I think it's probably our best chance,' Brax summarised, gazing at his brother. For once he looked a little nervous. 

'So we have to go to Sirrus,' Jack summed up.

_ I don't like the sound of this ... _

'Any other options?' the Doctor wondered vaguely. The silence he received in return answered that one. 'Well,' he began again, scratching behind his ear. 'To Sirrus it is.'

'I will come with you,' Brax said.

'Me too,' Jack concurred, nodding.

'We'll have to get a ticket in,' the Doctor said, looking at Jack. 'I hope you know what that means.'

Jack nodded. 'Ready for it. I spent a while on Sirrus, I know the ins and outs of it,' he assured them.

_ What does that mean? Gettin' a ticket in? _

The Doctor sighed, closing his eyes to talk to Rose. 'It means we'll have to spend a little time in prison.'

_ No. Don't do this. There's gotta be another way. _

'Sorry,' was all he could find to say.

'Stay rested,' Brax said, clearly figuring the conversation he was having with Rose. 'You are still within the first fifteen hours of your regeneration cycle, we must be cautious.’

For once the Doctor agreed with his brother, nodding. He remained seated as Brax left, book in hand, the younger Time Lord just biting into his fourth piece of toast, but somehow it had become so bitter.

'I need to find Mickey for a backrub,' Martha moaned, struggling to stand up from her chair. Jack helped her, guiding her to her feet. She paused momentarily to look at the Doctor, sympathetic. 'It'll be okay,' she told him, cupping his free hand across the table with some difficulty. 'You'll both be okay. You're always okay.'

The Doctor smiled at her. 'I know.'

'Ugh, shouldn't have done that,' she moaned, gripping Jack to try and pull herself upright again. Jack just gave the Doctor a look as he helped her out of the door. 

Only when they were all gone did Rose's voice speak in the Doctor's head.

_ No. _

'What?'

_ Just no. _

'We don't have a choice.'

_ Yeah, we do. You can't do that again. I nearly lost you, you were insane after you were imprisoned. _

'That was for twelve years. This'll be for a couple of weeks, three months tops,' he countered.

_ Oh yeah, cos that makes a whole lotta difference. I'm drawin' a line. You're not doin' it. _

'It's apparently the only way to fix this.'

_ That didn't even have an endin'! Brax missed somethin'. Go to the library right now and find somethin' else. _

'Rose ...'

_ What about a psychograft, you said about a psychograft, yeah? Why won't that work? _

'If it was that easy the other Time Lord would have done it,' the Doctor pointed out. 

_ Then the book's wrong! _

'Oh come on,' the Doctor told her. 'It won't be like last time. I've got you in my head this time around, I won't be on my own for twelve years like before. Look, I promised Jackie I'd fix this and frankly I don't think I can live the rest of my life with you in my head. It's just a planet full of angry aliens with guns. What’s new about that?'

There was a long pause.

‘Rose,’ he prompted.

_ Okay. I'm with you. _

He smiled. 'Thank you.'

_ Don't think I'm happy about it though. _

Jack reentered the room, offering the Doctor a grin as he sat down again. 'Still feeling okay?'

The Doctor sighed and shrugged. 'Fine.'

'What does Rose think of this by the way?'

'Not happy,' the Doctor assured him.

_ You bet I’m not! _

‘Hey, Rose,’ Jack said, leaning to the Doctor. ‘I’ve got him, relax. Besides, we’re recon professionals.’

‘When were you on Sirrus?’ the Doctor wondered.

Jack suddenly looked a little embarrassed. ‘After I left the Time Agency I went into private espionage,’ he confessed. ‘I was contracted into delivering the public humiliation of a high up noble on Trion. I pulled it off, but I got sold out. Went to Sarn, did my time, my cellmate was this shady Shamboni who said he had contacts for some work and I found myself on Sirrus. When we landed he tried to beat the hell out of me to show off against his friends that he could kill an ex-Time Agent, and I ended up killing him. His friends then just wanted me dead for it. I went on the run. Took ten months to get onto a supply ship and get out.’

The Doctor watched as Jack seemed to involuntarily flinch at the memory. ‘You don’t have to go back,’ the Time Lord told him honestly. ‘Me and Brax’ll cope.’

‘Oh, no, I wanna help,’ Jack insisted. ‘You’re gonna be lost without me, I know that place. How have you been on Sirrus?’

‘Quick visit, I was chasing down the Head of the Terracore,’ the Doctor said. ‘Nearly got shot six times in five hours.’

‘Fun day,’ Jack mused.

‘Didn’t feel like it at the time,’ the Doctor replied.

_ Doctor, I don’t want this. _

The Doctor closed his eyes to signal to Jack he was talking to Rose. ‘We just talked about this. This is our only option.’

_ I know, but … _

‘Thete,’ Brax suddenly said, ducking his head in the doorframe. ‘Come to the console room.’

‘What?’ the Doctor asked, looking up sharply.

‘You’ve got a message.’

* * *

‘It just came through, forwarded anonymously,’ Brax explained, hitting a few buttons on the console. Without much warning the monitor erupted into life. A grainy picture full of lines of interference obscured a large face with black hair and a beard, but even in low quality the Doctor recognised him from a long distant memory.

‘Hunfrid,’ he whispered, his eyes wide.

Before anyone could ask, the sound crackled into life and a voice came through.

_ ‘This message is for the Doctor. It’s me, Hunfrid. I’m sorry to call you out of the blue but I need you. Please help me.’ _

The face abruptly cut out, and there was only silence.

_ Who was that? _

The Doctor sighed, scratching the back of his head. ‘Hunfrid, a giant living on Planet Colossus Major,’ he muttered. ‘It’s a planet separated into tribes. Each tribe has their own giant that protects their villages. I accidentally stopped off there … After the war.’

Immediately everyone looked at him, confused.

_ Oh, is there where...? _

‘Yeah,’ he muttered to Rose. 

‘What?’ Jack asked. ‘What happened?’

‘After I activated the Moment and survived, I started … Well, I wasn’t in the mood for much.’ He paused, patting the TARDIS console. ‘I had… Well, I did something and I crashed there in the middle of a tribal war; their giants were fighting each other. I dropped out of the Tardis straight onto a battlefield, badly hurt and close to regeneration. Hunfrid and his brother passed me – they were on their way to their village which was about to be attacked. They stopped, Hunfrid picked me up and took me to a healer in a forest while his brother carried on to the village. But by the time Hunfrid got to his village … it had been attacked and burnt to the ground. They’d all died, including his brother who’d been overwhelmed without him to help.’

He tugged at his ear awkwardly as everyone continued to stare at him, horrified.

‘It’s my fault, I owe him more than my life,’ he finished in the ensuing silence.

‘That’s not your fault,’ Martha told him. ‘You were helpless.’

‘That’s what he said,’ the Doctor murmured. ‘But I have to help him.’

‘You can’t,’ Brax interrupted suddenly. ‘Rose needs to get back into her body.’

_ I don’t mind waitin’. _

‘I don’t mind waiting,’ the Doctor repeated out loud.

Brax sighed, looking at him a little apprehensively. ‘Thete, we have no idea how Rose being trapped is affecting her or you. We don’t know what happened to that Time Lord, plus Rose is a human. There may be a different effect; she’s not a Time Lady, she’s not even Gallifreyan. It could be killing her consciousness. You know how fragile human minds are.’

A brief silence hung in the air, and in the Doctor’s head.

_ … Doctor, I don’t wanna die. _

‘I know,’ the Doctor muttered to her, and ran his hand through his hair again. ‘But I can’t abandon him.’

‘Hey,’ Jack suddenly said, finger in the air. ‘What if we went on your behalf?’

The Doctor looked at him. ‘What?’

‘You go and sort out Rose, and Torchwood will handle this,’ he said, gesturing to himself, Ianto and Gwen.

‘We will?’ Ianto asked, wide-eyed.

‘First mission on a brand new planet, what d’you think?’ he asked his employees.

Gwen was grinning. ‘Love it.’

‘Wait,’ Brax interrupted, looking at Jack. ‘You can’t, you must go with Thete. You know Sirrus better than me. I will go with Gwen and Ianto - I know Colossus Major.’

‘Besides, wouldn’t it look much better if you sent your brother?’ Martha pointed out.

The Doctor messed with his hair again. ‘... Yeah,’ he muttered weakly.

‘So, Ianto, Gwen and I will go and tackle the giants, Jack and Thete will sort out Rose,’ Brax summed up, looking at the others gathered around as if looking for volunteers. 

Martha pulled a face and gestured to her now massive pregnant belly. ‘Don’t think I’d be much use.’

Mickey nodded, stepping up beside his wife and resting a hand on his shoulders. ‘Think I’d better stay with her.’

‘And I’ll look after the kids,’ Jackie said.

Everyone looked at Rhys next, who shared a glance with Jackie. ‘You’re gonna need a hand with that.’

‘Can I come?’ a little girl’s voice suddenly asked from below the Doctor, startling him slightly. He looked down to see Leah standing there, gazing up at him.

‘You’re going nowhere,’ the Doctor told her firmly.

‘What?’ Leah cried, annoyed. ‘I wanna come with you!’

‘You can’t, it’s too dangerous.’

Leah sighed, hands on hips, looking indignant. ‘I thought you said I should start doing stuff now!’

‘This is the underground network, there’s a lot of dangerous people,’ the Doctor told her firmly. ‘I don’t want you there, I can’t keep worrying about you. Next time.’

Leah looked up at him, her eyes wide and shining. Her little eyelashes fluttered and she gripped onto his jacket, tugging it. Immediately the Doctor’s hardened exterior broke a little, and the little girl who had him wrapped around her little finger slowly began to grind him down …

‘No, Leah,’ he said firmly, looking away from her doe eyes.

‘Daddy!’ Leah interrupted in a wail, still tugging on his jacket. ‘Please, Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy ...’

‘Leah, you can stay with us,’ Martha told her positively. ‘You can play with the new baby.’

‘Don’t wanna,’ Leah said firmly, folding her arms and sticking her nose up.

‘Oh sweetheart, don’t worry, we’ll have loads of fun here,’ Jackie said. ‘You, me, Tony, and Alex can...’

‘I don’t wanna play with Tony!’ Leah yelled. ‘I wanna help!’

‘Well, you’re not going to,’ the Doctor said.

‘I’m not a baby!’

‘You are four-years-old,’ Gwen pointed out.

Immediately the temper tantrum began. ‘I wanna go! I wanna go! I wanna go!’ she screamed in a rage, jumping up and down on the spot and occasionally kicking the TARDIS console. Then she started ranting in Gallifreyan, her little face increasingly becoming more and more red. ‘Ei’ann’eon! Ann’eon! Eon wi-arit jishh’ei’leii’wi-geroi! Ei’ohh’berr! Jishh’ei’berr!’

The Doctor groaned. ‘Leah...’ 

‘N-eon’holl-ei’marr-gea!’

‘Miho’afa’eon’marai-gea joh’eon’holver y eon’lei-o’laqui je’eon’oh?’ the Doctor asked seriously.

Leah faltered, sighed a little and looked up. ‘Naqu, Poha,’ she said desperately, before looking at Brax. ‘Weepa-Brax, naqu!’

_ What is she sayin’? _

The Doctor didn’t answer Rose for a moment. He just sighed, glancing at Jack who shrugged, unable to understand the exchange. He looked at Brax instead, who was just standing there, clearly thinking.

‘She wants to go to Sirrus,’ he muttered to Rose.

_ No. Not to Sirrus. _

‘No,’ the Doctor agreed. He looked back at Leah, opened his mouth to tell her she couldn’t go, when suddenly Brax interrupted, hand in the air.

‘Perhaps if she came with us?’ he suggested.

_ What? _

‘What?’ the Doctor asked.

‘What!?’ Jackie almost shrieked.

‘It will be far less dangerous than Sirrus. There will also be three of us to cover her. We would have the Tardis too, so she can head back at any time. Plus we could use her, she is quite small and that is an advantage on Colossus.’

‘Hey!’ Leah said indignantly, standing on her tiptoes and sticking her chest out to make herself look big.

‘No, that’s my granddaughter!’ Jackie snapped, fixing him with the ever-familiar Tyler stare of death, her hands on her hips. The Doctor looked back at Leah, who had assumed the same posture and the same expression, only directed at her grandmother.

‘Granny!’ Leah protested.

‘You’re just a child!’

‘Wait,’ the Doctor interrupted before an argument could erupt, looking at Leah. ‘What d’you think?’

‘Yes, please!’ she enthused.

‘Are you crazy!?’ Jackie yelped.

‘What are you thinking?’ the Doctor directed at Rose, closing his eyes.

_ I dunno… _

‘Up to you.’

_ … Okay. But you’d better threaten Brax. _

‘Don’t worry, I was doing that anyway,’ the Doctor assured her, and opened his eyes again. ‘Okay,’ he told Brax. ‘You can take her.’

‘Doctor!’ Jackie cried, looking just about ready to slap him.

‘Yay!’ Leah said happily, arms in the air. She immediately hugged his leg, so he dropped down to hug her in return, a bit tighter than usual. She finally let go and beamed up at him. ‘Thank you!’ she said, and then looked at Brax. ‘When are we going?’

Brax considered his brother. ‘Tomorrow,’ he decided. ‘Once he’s out of his regeneration cycle.’

‘Okay!’ Leah replied, running out of the door.

‘Doctor!!!’ Jackie cried again, far more dangerously as soon as Leah was gone.

_ Mum, it’s okay! _

‘Mum, it’s okay,’ the Doctor repeated.

‘No, it’s not!’ Jackie retorted.

‘Jackie,’ Brax said, turning to her and fixing her with a sincere gaze. ‘I will look after her, I promise. She is safe with me. I will protect her with all I have.’

Jackie sighed, flipping back her long blonde hair. ‘Okay. But if there is so much as a  _ scratch  _ on my grandchild ...’

Brax nodded. ‘I understand. No harm will come to her.’

Jackie nodded, smiled at him, and strolled out of the door.

‘How did you do that?’ the Doctor asked his brother seriously. ‘She never accepts what I say.’

‘Must be my natural charm,’ Brax joked. 

_ She fancies the pants off of him, she’s bein’ all gooey, seen it a million times before. _

The Doctor visibly winced. ‘Let’s not go there.’

‘Where?’ Jack asked.

The Doctor gave a vague gesture to his head, before looking at Brax. ‘If anything happens to her ...’ he paused, considering the people surrounding them, before gazing straight into his eyes. ‘Eon’afa’ceforai aluba rio kie Otherstide-n.’

‘N-manai,’ Brax said. ‘Now go and rest. Big day tomorrow.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ei’ann’eon! Ann’eon! Eon wi-arit jishh’ei’leii’wi-geroi! Ei’ohh’berr! Jishh’ei’berr! – I hate you! Hate you! You never let me do anything! I wanna go! Lemme go!  
> N-eon’holl-ei’marr-gea! – You said I’m mature!  
> Miho’afa’eon’marai-gea joh’eon’holver y eon’lei-o’laqui je’eon’oh? – How are you mature when you scream if you don’t get what you want?  
> Naqu, Poha. Weepa-Brax, naqu! – Please, Daddy. Uncle Brax, please!  
> Eon’afa’ceforai aluba rio kie Otherstide-n. – You are going to be regenerating from now until Otherstide.  
> N-manai – Understood.


	3. The Neo Proclamation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two teams part. Jack and the Doctor head to the Neo Proclamation where they discover Zak and Leya’s progress on rebuilding the corrupt organisation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Shadow Proclamation's fall comes about in Echoes, a previous story in this series.

At 9am the next day the Doctor was roused by Rose’s obligatory alarm clock. He got up, got dressed and walked into the kitchen only to find Leah awake and eating her breakfast with Jackie sitting next to her. They both looked up when he entered, and immediately collectively giggled.

‘What?’ he asked seriously, checking himself.

‘Did ya have a dream last night?’ Jackie wondered, grinning like she knew something he didn’t.

The Doctor stared at her. ‘What did I do?’

‘You were walkin’ ‘round,’ Leah told him through a mouthful of Cheerios.

‘Really? What happened?’

‘I heard this big crash in your room so I went in and you were sittin’ at Rose’s makeup table brushin’ hair you didn’t have,’ Jackie told him. ‘It was weird. Then I tried to get you back into bed but you were mumblin’ things that didn’t make much sense. Then Leah came in and we managed to get you in bed then.’

The Doctor frowned. ‘I was sleepwalking?’

‘Either that or it’s an alien thing,’ Jackie replied, somewhat facetiously.

The Doctor closed his eyes to address Rose. ‘Did you see any of this?’

_ No, you were dreamin’ though. I can’t remember what it was about. _

The Doctor opened his eyes again, shaking his head at Jackie and Leah to indicate Rose’s reply.

‘Is that not right?’ Jackie wondered, taking in his expression.

‘I have absolutely no idea,’ the Doctor admitted.

Leah, bored of it, jumped down from the table and looked up at him. ‘When are we going?’

‘As soon as everyone’s ready,’ the Doctor told her.

‘I’ll hurry ‘em up,’ she replied, turning and shooting out of the door. The Doctor shook his head in bemusement, and went straight to the food cupboard.

‘Are you feelin’ okay?’ Jackie wondered.

‘Fine,’ he answered, pulling out a packet of chocolate chip biscuits and proceeding to eat them straight from the pack.

‘I know this is somethin’ you ‘ave to do to fix ‘er, but can’t you do it any other way?’ she suddenly asked nervously.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. We’re always fine.’

Jackie scoffed. ‘Yeah, so what ‘appens if you don’t find this woman? What if Rose ends up stuck in there? What’ll happen to you; to Rose?’

‘I don’t know,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘But we will find this woman.’

‘What kind of answer is that?’ Jackie asked seriously, her arms akimbo. ‘What if she’s stuck in there, eh?’

‘Jackie, it doesn’t matter because I’m fixing it,’ the Doctor told her patiently.

‘You’re not answerin’ the question! What ‘appens if Rose is stuck in there?’

‘Jackie, I honestly, seriously and really don’t know. She could be fine, she could be dying, she could end up damaging my brain or a million other things, but none of that matters because I will  _ fix her,’  _ he said, emphasising the last few words. 

_ Hug her. _

‘What?’

‘What?’ Jackie echoed, looking at him strangely.

_ Please hug her, from me, yeah? _

The Doctor contained a sigh, and leant forward to wrap his arms around Jackie. For a moment the woman was a little startled, before she hugged him back.

‘Thank you,’ she suddenly said over his shoulder.

_ You’re welcome. _

‘Rose says you’re welcome,’ the Doctor replied.

‘That wasn’t for ‘er,’ Jackie said, before finally drawing back and gazing up at him. She leant forward, and placed one, deliberate kiss on his cheek. ‘I want you to be careful, sweetheart.’

‘I’m always careful. Dainty little fairy, me,’ the Doctor assured her with a grin.

Jackie rolled her eyes, picked up her tea and left just as Jack came in.

‘You ready for today?’ he asked the Doctor.

‘Just about,’ the Doctor replied, turning his attention back to his biscuits.

‘What’s the plan?’

‘We’ll get Brax to drop us off at the Neo Proclamation with Zak and Leya,’ the Doctor told him. ‘They should be able to get us into a prison. We’ll make some contacts, escape and get to Sirrus.’

‘Which prison are we going for?’ Jack asked, as though they were discussing a menu at a restaurant.

‘Not sure,’ the Doctor confessed. ‘We’ll see what Zak and Leya can do for us.’

Jack nodded. ‘I’ll meet you in the console room.’

* * *

Jack stepped out of the kitchen into the corridor, intending to go to his bathroom to smarten himself up when Brax almost walked into him coming the other way.

‘Sorry,’ Jack said, but was surprised to find the Time Lord just leant in close to Jack’s ear, conspiratorial.

‘Meet me in the tech lab,’ he said, and with that he walked off.

Jack paused momentarily, slightly confused before he turned and followed Braxiatel up to the tech lab.

* * *

He reached the lab to find Braxiatel at a computer. Jack moved forward, peering over Brax’s shoulder only to nearly get knocked over when the Time Lord suddenly turned, holding an implant gun.

The sight of it stunned Jack a little as he eyed it. ‘What are you doing with that?’ 

‘I need to keep an eye on Thete, but I cannot do that without you.’

‘An eye?’ Jack echoed, still looking at the gun.

‘This implant is a communicator, invisible to scanners,’ Brax said, gesturing to the implant gun. ‘I just put it in your hand and I can keep in direct contact with you. Just press your palm and speak.’

Jack slowly nodded. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Why all the secrecy?’

Brax looked a little nervous. ‘There’s a second part to this you won’t like.’

‘What?’

‘I  _ really  _ need to keep an eye on Thete,’ he said, urging Jack to catch on. ‘In an electronic sort of way …’

Jack widened his eyes as the penny dropped with a masty clatter. ‘Wait, you’re not talking about …?’

‘It is just precautionary.’

‘You want me to vitchip him!?’

‘I need to know he’s okay,’ Brax insisted, pulling a vitchip out of his pocket. ‘Just stick it on the back of his neck and I can monitor him.’

Jack’s eyes narrowed. ‘No.’

‘Jack,  _ please,’  _ Brax stressed. ‘He would never let me.’

‘Wonder why that is?’ Jack asked sarcastically, quite angry now. ‘You’re asking me to stick a chip on him so you can monitor him without him knowing!’

‘Jack, I am asking you as his brother,  _ please.  _ I need to know he’s okay.’

‘No!’ Jack said, standing up. ‘I’ll use your communicator but I’m not vitchipping him, it’s what owners do to slaves; it’s illegal; it’s wrong!’

‘Jack ...’

‘No!’ Jack reinforced, holding out his palm. ‘Gimme the implant.’

Brax at least had the decency to look ashamed. Silently he reached forward, pressed the barrel to Jack’s palm and fired. It was painless. Jack quickly drew his palm away and turned straight to the door.

‘Wait, Jack.’ Brax asked quietly.

Jack turned. ‘What?’ he spat.

‘Please don’t tell him I asked.’

Jack gazed at him, but didn’t reply before he turned and left.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, everyone was gathered in the console room. Brax, Gwen and Ianto were fully equipped with all manner of guns and technical devices, collectively ignoring the looks that the Doctor was giving them. Thankfully his little girl hadn’t expressed an interest in wielding a gun, though she was practising her karate moves that Jack had been subtly teaching her since she’d been two-years-old. 

‘We’re all set then,’ Jack said finally when the initial chat had died down. The Doctor was looking at him – he seemed a little tense, continuously glancing at Brax and Leah. He even had a small word with Gwen when he thought the Doctor wasn’t looking.

When the time finally arrived to leave, the Doctor gave Jackie a hug of his own accord, letting Rose exchange a few words with her before they parted. He then knelt down and simultaneously hugged Alex and Leah for two solid minutes. Alex had become quiet again, just looking at his father with his big blue eyes – so innocent. At least he’d be safe, the Doctor mused.

‘Daddy, stop worrying, you worry a lot,’ Leah chastised him mid-hug.

‘I like worrying about you,’ the Doctor told her honestly, kissing her forehead. ‘I love you.’

‘Love you too,’ she said.

_ Tell her to be careful. _

‘Mum says be careful,’ the Doctor told her. ‘And so do I.’

‘We’ll be fine!’ Leah told him happily, shrugging on her backpack.

The Doctor looked at Brax, and nodded. Brax immediately set the TARDIS into motion towards the Neo Proclamation. Everyone gripped onto an appropriate surface until they landed with the familiar bone-jolting clunk, and all was still.

The Doctor took one final look around, before looking down at Leah and dropping to his haunches in front of her. ‘Take this,’ he said, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out his sonic screwdriver. He held it out to her. 

She looked stunned. ‘But that’s yours,’ she told him, mystified.

‘I’ll only have it taken off of me where I’m going,’ he said, holding it out to her. ‘I want you to use it.’

After a moment’s hesitation, she took it and held it in both hands, as though handling a very expensive and delicate gossamer artifact. She gazed at it for a moment, then looked up at him, her eyes wide in wonderment. ‘Really?’ she asked.

‘Really,’ the Doctor confirmed, kissing her again. ‘Do me proud,’ he told her. 

She beamed a beautiful little smile, nodding enthusiastically. He adjusted her hair again, and once more kissed Alex goodbye, before finally standing up. Jack took his arm, coaxing him away from his small children and out of the doors.

They emerged into a corridor of the Neo Proclamation Headquarters, but the Doctor ignored it. He was looking back at the TARDIS. Slowly and with groaning engines, the blue box churned, faded in and out and blew a light wind across his face as she disappeared, taking everyone inside with her to Hunfrid on Colossus Major.

After a moment, he felt Jack rest a hand on his shoulder. ‘She’ll be fine,’ the immortal assured him.

The Doctor didn’t answer that, he just nodded and gave a shrug. ‘I don’t see the Tardis pilot away from me often.’

‘I s’pose you don’t,’ Jack mused, before the Doctor finally turned around and put the matter of his little girl deliberately out of his head. Instead he focused on what was in front of him – the Neo Proclamation Headquarters, located on what had been the perfectly average inner planet of Haxun One before the Shadow Proclamation massacre just a few months previously.

The corridors were all metal and brand new – so new that there was still a little building work going on, which explained the distinct lack of security. They should have probably been arrested immediately for breaching the security field. But no alarms were flashing, nor sirens wailing. They would have to locate Zak and Leya for themselves.

The Doctor led them to the nearest door, pressing his palm on the lock. The lock politely beeped and slid open to reveal yet more corridors, which they continued to pass through. It wasn’t for a good few minutes and a good few more corridors did they sight their first Judoon, patrolling through a hall.

‘S’cuse me!’ the Doctor called, bounding up to him. 

The Judoon turned abruptly, raising his gun to point it straight at the Doctor’s head. Then he paused, faltered, and immediately bowed.

‘I apologise, Zak, I was startled,’ he gruffed.

‘Oh yeah, the face,’ the Doctor realised, pointing vaguely at his own. ‘Sorry - bit lost. Where’s my office?’

‘Office?’

‘Err… Bedroom? Quarters? Chamber? Cubicle? Sleeping pod?’

‘Are you well, Zak?’ the Judoon asked, highly confused. It was quite possibly the first time the Doctor had ever encountered a confused Judoon.

‘Dandy,’ the Doctor assured him. ‘Where is it?’

The Judoon pointed to a lift near them. ‘Level thirty-three.’

‘Thanks, err …’

‘Jarred,’ the Judoon informed him politely.

‘Jarred! Thanks, Jarred,’ the Doctor said, offering him a smile and ignoring Jack’s slightly boggled-eye expression from the side as he skipped off to the lift and hit the button, the immortal two paces behind.

_ Wait, Judoon have names!? _

‘Jarred?’ Jack queried as the lift doors shut. ‘That judoon was … Hell, that wasn’t a judoon … Was it?’

‘Must be Zak and Leya’s work,’ the Doctor mused, before grinning. ‘I think I like what they’ve done with the place.’

‘It’s different,’ Jack pondered, just as the lift doors open and the Doctor immediately found himself staring at his own reflection. Of course, it wasn’t his reflection, but rather Zak, his clone made by the Shadow Proclamation illegally just a few months previously. He was a perfect mirror of the Doctor before he had regenerated, just with slightly longer hair and no sideburns. He double-taked, before realisation eventually dawned and he beamed from ear to ear.

‘Doctor! Jack!’ he enthused, pulling them both into a three-way hug. ‘Why are you here? How? When? Why didn’t you contact me? Never mind! Let’s grab a coffee! Leya! Oh wait, she’s downstairs, let’s go!’

Neither the Doctor nor Jack had a chance to say anything before they were all in the lift, heading down again.

* * *

They went to a lounge of some kind, where Zak disappeared only momentarily, returning with four steaming hot cups of uruvulian coffee and placing it on the table before he finally got to the important business of snogging Jack. The Doctor rolled his eyes and tried to avert his gaze, focusing instead on the ceiling, a mirage displaying space beyond their atmosphere. The Doctor could just make out the three asteroids of the Shadow Proclamation in the midst of being disassembled by droids under the orders of Zak and Leya; after the corruption of the Shadow Proclamation had been unveiled and the Doctor had placed his clone and the clone of his daughter in charge of the remade Shadow Proclamation, they had instantly made the decision to destroy it. He couldn’t blame them. He still had very vivid memories of having to sacrifice everything and spent twelve years in solitary confinement in order to get his clone to Earth into the care of Jack and Torchwood and complete a time loop. It had almost cost him his sanity.

_ Don’t think about it. _

‘Sorry,’ the Doctor muttered to the woman in his head.

_ It’s not gonna be like that again. I’ve got you, yeah? _

He smiled at that. ‘Yeah, you’ve got me.’

‘Are you alright?’ Zak asked, finally having pulled himself off of Jack to look at the Time Lord, apparently talking to himself.

Jack nudged him, grinning. ‘Rose is in his head.’

‘What?’ Zak asked, confused.

‘There was an accident and Rose is stuck in his head, chatting inside it,’ Jack explained.

Zak opened his mouth to say something, but eventually frowned and closed it again.

‘Don’t worry, we don’t understand it either,’ the Doctor told him.

‘Doctor! Jack!’ a new voice called, and they all turned to see Leya advancing towards them. Her long brunette hair was in a long ponytail swept over her shoulder, her brown eyes sparkling with utter joy. She was taller than he remembered, having aged just slightly since he’d seen her last.

He got up, and smiled as she greeted him with a hug. At the touch of his daughter – even though she was a clone – he was suddenly mentally assaulted by images of his real daughter, standing there in the TARDIS holding his sonic screwdriver with wide eyes. 

He quickly forced them out again. Brax would look after her.

‘Why are you here?’ she asked, moving to hug Jack next before taking the fourth cup of coffee.

‘First, what have  _ you  _ done here?’ the Doctor asked. 

‘We met Jarred,’ Jack added.

Zak and Leya exchanged a look, laughing as if sharing an inside joke. ‘Oh, Jarred’s great,’ Zak said. ‘He’s such a laugh. He’s one of our full-timers.’

‘Full-timers?’ Jack echoed.

‘We thought we should probably hire the Judoon again,’ Leya told them. ‘But we managed to actually contract a few full-time to us.’

‘You gave them permanent jobs?’ Jack asked, somewhat bewildered.

Zak and Leya nodded in sync. ‘It was horrible how the Shadow Proclamation used to treat them,’ Leya said. ‘They didn’t even call them by their real names. Since after the Shadow Proclamation fell their contract to them was over, they went home. We wanted to rehire them, but we didn’t have much money so we just advertised individual positions on their home planet. We weren’t expecting any of them to contact us.’

‘But they did,’ Zak continued, grinning. ‘We had a whole job interview thing and had to turn away loads.’

‘You did  _ job interviews  _ for judoon?’ Jack asked, still stunned. He looked at the Doctor, who just laughed.

‘Brilliant,’ the Time Lord said, absolutely delighted. ‘Just brilliant …!’

Leya beamed at him. ‘We take them when we’re doing planetary relations.’

‘How’s that going?’ the Doctor wondered.

‘We’re officially the police of fifty-six solar systems in the immediate vicinity,’ Leya said.

‘That was fast,’ the Doctor commented.

‘Doesn't feel fast,' Zak admitted. 'No one trusts the name Proclamation after what they did. You have no idea how many rallies and interviews we've done to convince them all we're different.'

'I wouldn't have picked you for the job if I didn't think you could do it,' the Doctor told him and Leya. 'And sounds to me like you're doing a pretty good job so far.'

They both grinned.

'So why are you here?' Leya asked. 'Where's everyone else?'

Jack looked at the Doctor, who gestured for him to explain. He did, telling the story from beginning to end as the Doctor watched Zak and Leya’s faces, slowly becoming more and more confused.

'... So basically we need a quick route into prison,' Jack finally finished on.

'Oh, this is heavy,' Zak muttered, hand in his head. 'And there's no other way?'

'No,' the Doctor confirmed.

Zak and Leya exchanged a glance, before Zak nodded and looked back at them. ‘What prison are you looking to get in?’

‘One of your most notorious,’ Jack told him. 'We need high criminal status.'

Zak thought for a moment. ‘There’s New Shada.’

The Doctor froze. ‘Shada?’

‘New Shada,’ Zak corrected him. ‘It’s the most secure criminal containment planet in the universe. For the worst criminals. It was created after Volag-Noc fell.'

‘Perfect,’ Jack said, glancing at the Doctor – but he wasn’t looking so complacent. ‘Problem?’

A million old memories stirred up, but the Doctor quickly got rid of them and – eventually – shook his head. ‘We're just going to need a very good plan.’

Jack nodded, and looked back at Zak and Leya. 'How quick can you get us in?'

'Straight away,' Leya replied.

'Then let's go,' the Doctor said, already standing up.

'Wait,' Zak said, gazing at Jack. 'Stay the night? I know you're both in a hurry and everything but please, stay.'

The Doctor and Jack looked at each other only momentarily.

'Okay,' the Doctor said. 'First thing tomorrow, then.'


	4. K is for Killer Gigano Quercuses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah’s group arrive on Haxun, and begin investigations into the disappearances of villagers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone here is referring to events in Echoes when they're talking about Leya/Leah, the fifth in this series.

Leah had bid goodbye to everyone happily and been the first out of the TARDIS door when they’d landed, eager to get going.

She emerged into a small cave seemingly buried deep inside a beautiful forest. Her Uncle Brax shouted for her to hold up and wait, but she ignored him and ran forward out of the mouth of the cave and among the trees.

They were absolutely huge – wider than Uncle Jack’s SUV and towering over her for what seemed like miles and miles. The trunks were orange, with red vines creeping up all around them like unstable spiral staircases. There were various animals running in and out of gaps in the vines and holes in the tree.

She turned back to the TARDIS, which Auntie Gwen, Uncle Brax and Uncle Ianto had finally emerged from. The two humans were staring at the trees, utterly amazed.

‘Are they trees?’ Auntie Gwen aske, astonished.

‘Gigano Quercuses,’ Leah informed her proudly. ‘They’re only on Colossus planets. They have a lifespan of … umm … 40,000 years.’

Auntie Gwen looked a little stunned at the tidal wave of information coming from the four-year-old girl. ‘Really?’ she ended up asking, for want of a better retort.

‘There’s one on Colossus Colossi, which everyone swears is over 50,000-years-old but Daddy thinks they’re liars.’

There was a collective laugh at that.

‘Actually, there is a rumour that the Gigano Quercus species could be sentient,’ Uncle Brax told her.

‘Yeah, if you touch ‘em and they’re in a bad mood they might kill you,’ Leah agreed.

Uncle Ianto and Auntie Gwen immediately stepped away from the nearest tree.

‘But I think Daddy was making that up so I wouldn’t climb it,’ Leah continued. 

Uncle Ianto and Auntie Gwen relaxed a little, but still didn’t move near the tree.

‘Shall we?’ Uncle Brax suggested, smiling at his niece before heading off through the forest, 

‘Wait!’ Leah shouted, causing them all to stop, alarmed. She hauled her transcendental backpack off of her shoulders and put it on the ground, unzipping it to rummage through. She eventually pulled out her little pink furry notebook with an attached pen, studiously flicking through the pages until she found her notes on Gigano Quercus trees. She then took hold of the pen and crossed out **probably lying** , changing it to **definitely lying**. She then put the notebook back into her bag, zipped it up, and put it back on her shoulders.

‘Let’s go!’ she enthused, and skipped through the crowd to lead the way through the forest.

* * *

Eventually they emerged out of the forest, onto a wide plain of undisturbed grass, bar a few small cow-like creatures on the edge. But it became clearer as they advanced that the cow-like creatures weren’t small, but just incredibly far away. They were  _ huge. _

‘Starting to feel a little like Gulliver,’ Uncle Ianto mused as they got close enough to gauge the size of them. They were about the size of two average human males.

‘Stay away,’ Uncle Brax warned them. ‘They’ve got their calves with them, it’s breeding season.’

They all dutifully avoid the herd, pushing on across the field. They continued on a downslope, towards a small village containing rings of small stone huts like Leah had seen in the Earth's history section of the TARDIS’ library. White smoke was billowing out of the chimneys, and the village was alive with the voices of conversing adults and children playing.

They entered the village, and very soon found themselves surrounded by the people. There was an unspoken expectation between the four time travellers of being yelled at with pointy sticks being thrust in their direction, but the villagers were far too busy staring at them.

‘We’re looking for Hunfrid,’ Uncle Brax announced politely to them all. ‘We’re here on behalf of the Doctor.’

At the sound of her father’s name, a ripple of excitement burst through the gathered tribespeople. Several of them bowed, and every one of them, Leah noticed, seemed to be staring at her with wide eyes.

'What?' she asked.

No one had the chance to reply as suddenly there was the sound of massive footfalls, jolting the ground she was standing on. Her Uncle Ianto instinctively grabbed her arm to stabilise her as suddenly the sun seemed to disappear and Leah found herself looking up at a giant humanoid walking straight towards them.

For a small moment she panicked, but quickly calmed down as the giant man – as tall as a house – reached them and offered a wide, reassuring smile.

'I am Hunfrid,' the giant said in his deep, booming voice, seemingly not surprised to see them instead of the Doctor. He gestured behind him. 'Please, come to the council building.'

* * *

'I am so glad I found you,' Hunfrid was saying to them all as they made their way to the Elder Council’s meeting house. Uncle Brax kept Leah close, and Auntie Gwen was holding her hand as the entire population seemed to be staring at her.

‘I am Braxiatel, the Doctor’s brother,’ her Uncle Brax said to Hunfrid. ‘These are the Doctor’s friends; Ianto and Gwen, and his daughter, Leah.’

Hunfrid’s massive eyes looked down at Leah. They seemed to sparkle. ‘You are just like you were before, Leya.’

‘Leah,’ Leah corrected.

‘We called you Leya, Leah is not pronounceable in our tribal language.’

Leah looked at her Uncle Brax. He was frowning, as if trying to recall something. Then he seemed to click. 

‘It was here,’ Uncle Brax realised. ‘During the massacre at the Proclamation the Doctor sent his clone daughter to a tribe so she could be raised in safety. Twelve years ago. That was you, wasn’t it? He sent her here.’

Hunfrid nodded. ‘We took her in and raised her as best we could.’ He paused, looking at Leah again. ‘This is not the same Leya.’

‘No,’ her Uncle replied. ‘This is the Doctor’s real daughter. Your Leya is very well, she’s head of the Neo Proclamation.’

Hunfrid nodded again. ‘She sends us frequent messages.’

Uncle Brax nodded. ‘The Doctor apologises for not being able to be here himself, but he had an extremely urgent errand to run.’ 

Hunfrid stopped, frowning. ‘He is alive?’

‘You are surprised?’

‘I assumed to have sent his daughter to us he must have been in mortal peril, I had not expected an answer to my message.’

‘He’s alive,’ Uncle Brax assured him. ‘He sent us to help you. What’s the matter?’

Hunfrid didn’t answer for the moment as they reached the Elder Council’s meeting house, which was quite a lot larger than any of the other buildings. The door was huge – big enough for Hunfrid. He opened it up and they all filed inside into a glorious, huge interior. It was lovingly built, with various wooden carvings placed around the perimeter and large woven drapes hanging from the ceiling, all serving to frame a large wooden round table in the centre. Around the table were a variety of chairs – a particularly large one for Hunfrid to sit in, and a particularly small one amongst some normal-sized chairs, of which were currently occupied by a variety of elderly men and women all dressed in elaborate, colourful clothing which Leah immediately wanted to try on. Some of the chairs were empty.

On their entry they all got up, bowing to the group.

‘We thank you,’ one of the Elders said. ‘Welcome to our village.’

They all gestured for the time travellers to take the empty seats. They all did, Uncle Brax about to lifft Leah onto his lap when Hunfrid held up a huge hand.

‘May I?’ he asked Uncle Brax.

Brax nodded, but was clearly cautious as Hunfrid reached out to Leah, extending his hand. ‘Jump on,’ he invited her.

Leah climbed onto his finger and held on, full of glee as he moved his hand to place her on the small chair – though the seat was high enough to put her eyes on level with everyone else’s. He then drew back, took his own seat, and everyone finally sat down.

‘This is Braxiatel, the Doctor’s brother, his friends, Gwen and Ianto, and his daughter, Leya,’ Hunfrid said to the elders, pointing to each of the time travellers in turn.

All the Elders were staring at Leah again. She could tell this was going to be a recurring theme as when they looked at her they saw the little girl delivered to them on the escape pod from twelve years previously.

‘We thank you for coming,’ one of the elders said.

‘You have some of your elders missing?’ Uncle Brax noted, indicating his own chair.

‘Our people have been disappearing.’

‘How so?’ Auntie Gwen asked.

‘At night we lock our doors and Hunfrid stands guard, but we only hear their cries before they have disappeared,’ an Elder explained.

‘And the doors are still locked?’ Auntie Gwen asked.

The Elder nodded. ‘We break in but they have gone, their food still boiling in their pots.’

‘No clues, then,’ Auntie Gwen mused, looking at Leah and her two uncles. ‘When was the most recent disappearance?’

‘Last night,’ Hunfrid told them. ‘Would you like to see the hut?’

They all nodded.

* * *

Hunfrid and one of the Elders led the group to a hut near the centre of the village. Thankfully the villagers had stopped watching them and instead were going about their activities, though there was definitely something in the air Leah didn’t like. A kind of dark underlying fear and tension.

They entered the hut together. It was a basic construct, minimally decorated with a mud floor that looked a little churned over near one corner. Leah watched her aunt as she employed her police skills into examining the scene presented before them, trying to piece it together.

‘No sign of attack?’ Auntie Gwen asked.

The Elder shook his head. 

‘This mud has been churned up,’ she pointed out to Uncle Brax and Uncle Ianto, who both nodded in sync.

‘That means something came up out of the ground,’ Leah deduced, already walking to the churned-up mud patch. Uncle Brax quickly took her arm to stop her getting too close.

‘Could still be under there,’ Uncle Brax said.

‘But isn’t that the fun of it?’ Leah asked, bewildered.

Her two Uncles and her Auntie all turned to stare at her.

‘You don’t have to do it the way your father does it, you know,’ Uncle Ianto told her.

‘But it gets to the point quicker,’ Leah pointed out.

‘We’re doing this our way,’ Uncle Brax said, decisively pulling her back before turning to the Elder. ‘When did people begin to disappear?’

‘Around a month ago,’ the Elder informed him. ‘None of them have returned.’

‘And how regularly are they being taken?’

‘It is increasing as time passes,’ the Elder replied.

‘Gaining in confidence,’ Uncle Ianto muttered.

‘Or there’s more of them than there was before,’ Gwen added.

Leah tried not to think about that, unintentionally reaching up to grip the nearest hand, which happened to be Uncle Brax’s. It felt very different to her daddy’s. Her daddy had such long fingers his hand would wrap around her’s entirely, cocooning it protectively. Uncle Brax’s didn’t – his fingers were shorter; stubbier. She could feel the draft on the back of her hand.

‘Did something happen just before the first people disappeared?’ Uncle Brax asked.

The Elder could only shrug. 'I'm not sure.'

Uncle Brax looked at the others, his brow furrowed, before looking to the Elder. 'I think we need to have a look around.'

'Please,' the Elder invited. 'We will be happy to provide you with whatever you need.'

They all nodded courteously as the Elder left to let them confer. 

Leah watched her Auntie look at her Uncle Brax, clearly trying to work it out. 'So something's come out of the ground?'

'There seems to be no other logical explanation,' Uncle Brax replied, scratching his nose with one finger.

'So we gotta go underground!' Leah concluded.

'I told you, we don't have to do this your father's way,' Uncle Brax said seriously.

'Then what?'

'Survey the area. Obviously something has been introduced to the area that wasn't here previously.'

'On it,' Uncle Ianto said, pulling out a strange metal device from his pocket and immediately tapping away, causing a series of beeps and whirls to issue from the small device.

'You're all doing it wrong,' Leah protested. 'If we just stand here more people will get taken and ...'

'Leah, your father is a very clever man, but why not try a new approach?' Uncle Brax suggested.

'A softly, softly one,' Auntie Gwen added.

Leah looked at them all, Uncle Ianto still tapping away on his device in the midst of the silence. She sighed, and held her uncle's hand tighter.

'Okay,' she said.

'I'm getting traces of unknown tech,' Uncle Ianto announced suddenly. ‘Due east.’

* * *

It took a few hours of walking to get to the trace of technology, which turned out to be an escape pod, looking very out of place in such a tribal world. The door was broken off, lying on the ground to expose the inside. It was rusted by time, but it was still quite intact. Uncle Brax led the way to the pod, Leah hanging behind with her notebook back out and pen in hand.

He ducked his head inside momentarily, before looking back at the others. ‘Parts have been stripped,’ he informed them.

‘Does it have a black box?’ Leah wondered.

Uncle Brax leant a little further in, fiddling for a moment. ‘I can’t remove it.’

Leah quickly reached inside her bag and pulled out her dad’s sonic screwdriver, moving forward to hold it up to Uncle Brax. He took it, thanking her before the familiar sonic buzzing began, and something clicked. Seconds later Uncle Brax turned back, the box in hand. He moved back to the others and with another spurt of sonic, activated it. They all gathered around to take a look.

**BLACK BOX FILES – SP/EP: 109-34**

Uncle Brax’s brow furrowed. ‘This escape pod is from the Shadow Proclamation,’ he told them.

**Analysing files... Complete**

**72% file corruption. See available data? Y/N**

Uncle Brax pressed  **Y** .

**BLACK BOX FILES – SP/EP: 109-34**

**Journey details:**

**Origin Point – Registered: Shadow Proclamation, Dock 3/109/45, 14.1/07**

**Destination Point – Custom Input: Colossus Major, -13.4811031° N, 13.542166° W, 20.8/07**

**Journey profile:**

**Pod activated**

**Custom destination input**

**Estimated journey time calculated**

**Stasis query – occupant confirm – stasis activated**

**Arrival at destination**

**Stasis deactivated**

**Landing protocol initiated automatically**

**Landing successful**

**-END-**

**Repeat? Y/N**

‘This must’ve been the one Leya arrived on,’ Auntie Gwen mused. ‘But that was twelve years ago.’

‘Perhaps something was inside it, something that’s taken a decade to mature,’ Uncle Brax suggested, handing the black box to Uncle Ianto before ducking his head back inside the escape pod. More sonicking ensued. Eventually he emerged again, frowning. ‘If the escape pod brought something with it it’s long gone.’

‘What could it have brought with it? How, even?'

Uncle Brax frowned. ‘I'm not sure.'

Everyone paused to think about that. The group of blank faces Leah could see made it apparent nobody had a decent explanation.

‘It’s getting dark,’ Uncle Brax noted, checking the sky. ‘I am not sure it’s wise to be on the ground at night. We must warn the village.’

They all nodded, and headed back to the village.


	5. Welcome to New Shada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and the Doctor spend their last night of freedom at the Neo Proclamation with Zak and Leya, before heading off to be incarcerated at the notorious New Shada high security prison.

The Doctor and Jack had spent the day being taken on a tour around the Neo Proclamation by Leya and an enthusiastic Zak telling them about all the features they were planning for it. They walked into empty room after empty room, Zak and Leya explaining the intended layout of a small tourist area, and even a campus with halls of residence for students. Zak had explained how they wanted to be inclusive to the people of the Universe, and their CEO, Tchan, was out gathering materials and volunteers who would arrive in a few weeks to help with the building.

They had dinner – a takeaway ordered from one of the Haxun planets that arrived by delivery pod in thirty minutes – talking about menial things before Zak and Jack disappeared to bed. The Doctor tried not to think too hard about what those two were doing.

Leya then escorted the Doctor to a small bedroom. It was single quarters with modern decor – the walls white and featureless, except for a wide mirror on the wall like some sort of dance studio. The bed was more of a sleeping pod, with a close down window, vents and a controlled heating system. It had an adjoining bathroom that Rose had found quite fascinating, enthusing in the Doctor’s head about the strange upright toilet and odd sensory washing system that somehow didn’t need water.

Finally he stripped down to shirt and boxers before lying down on the surface of the sleeping pod on his side, seeing himself reflected in the giant mirror.

_ You look tired. _

The Doctor sighed, staring at his reflection. ‘It’s Shada.’

_ What about it? _

‘Shada was a Time Lord prison,’ the Doctor told her. ‘Built for the most dangerous criminals in the universe.’

_ Been there? _

‘Not as such. The Master has.’

_ So someone rebuilt the Time Lord prison planet after the war? Wait, was Shada destroyed in the Time War? _

‘I assumed so.’

_ Didn’t you check? _

‘The location is hidden,’ the Doctor told her. ‘It’s notoriously very difficult to find.’

_ So you don’t actually know whether it still exists? _

‘Nope.’

_ It’s not gonna be the same one. Zak said New Shada. _

‘I know, but the fact that someone felt the need to rebuild it is …’ The Doctor paused, still staring at his reflection in the mirror. ‘It’s worrying me.’

_ You think it’s not right? _

‘No one had the right to rebuild it, Rose,’ the Doctor said seriously, his brow creasing and his voice becoming harsher, ‘only Time Lords. Only me, Brax and the Master, no one else. No one else had  _ any  _ right to rebuild it. It was Time Lord, it wasn’t meant to be rebuilt, it didn’t have to be rebuilt and  _ definitely  _ not by another species ...!’

She didn’t answer that. 

He paused, looking apologetically at his reflection. ‘Sorry.’

_ It’s okay. Bit close to home, yeah? _

‘... Yeah.’

_ We just need to get to Sirrus. It doesn’t matter about Shada … New Shada … y’know what I mean. _

‘I s’pose not,’ the Doctor muttered.

_ Go to sleep. _

He offered a smile to his reflection. ‘Thank you.’

_ You’re welcome. Now c’mon, I wanna see how this sleepin’ pod thing works. _

He rolled his eyes, hitting a few buttons on a panel. The screen locked down into place, warmth flooded the pod and the sides seemed to automatically dim to cancel the outside light.

_ Oh, that’s so weird. _

The Doctor grinned. ‘Night.’

_ Night. _

He closed his eyes, hugging himself almost instinctively as he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

‘Don’t do this.’

Zak’s voice was so tiny Jack almost didn’t hear it. He had to look at his lover, who was laid naked next to him, gazing at the immortal with big, begging eyes. He looked so innocent. The way he’d looked the first night Jack had met him.

‘I’m sorry,’ Jack replied. ‘We’ve gotta save Rose.’

‘It doesn’t have to be New Shada,’ Zak insisted.

‘You suggested it,’ Jack pointed out.

‘I know but … Jack, that place is for Class Four prisoners and above. I don’t want to sign the document to put you and the Doctor in there. That place is for the worst criminals in the universe.’

‘Nothing we ain’t seen before.’ 

‘No, you don’t get it,’ Zak stressed, sitting up. ‘It’s hell. They’ll have you, they’ll all have you. So’s Sirrus. These people are disgusting, Jack.’

‘I know, I used to be one of ‘em,’ Jack replied honestly.

‘What?’

Jack sighed, looking at his lover. ‘Didn’t tell you that bit yet, did I?’

Zak stared blankly at him. Jack couldn’t help but smile at his rabbit-in-headlights expression, pushing himself up to embrace him.

‘It’s okay,’ he told Zak softly in his ear. ‘Hey, I’m immortal. Can’t get hurt.’

‘Your head can,’ Zak replied smally.

Jack paused, just holding him momentarily until he pulled back, just running his hand through Zak’s thick brown hair in silence for a while until Zak caught his hand, stilling it mid-movement.

‘Don’t go,’ Zak reinforced.

‘What are you scared of?’ Jack wondered seriously.

‘You hang out with ‘em, you become one of ‘em,’ Zak replied shortly. ‘They’ll turn you into them, you’ll become part of their world.’

Jack was about to dismiss the very thought, but quickly realised that it wasn’t actually such a ridiculous notion. Falling into that world when he’d been younger had been the easiest thing he’d ever done in his life. But he couldn’t go back now.

Could he?

‘I promise I’ll come back, just like I am,’ Jack said sincerely, staring unblinkingly in Zak’s eyes. ‘I’m not going back to that. What I’ve got now … you, the Doctor, Rose, everyone else … I’m not losing that. It’s too good. Okay?’

Zak shifted uncomfortably. Jack leant forward on impulse, kissing him deeply.

‘I love you,’ Jack said sincerely.

‘I love you too.’

* * *

New Shada Prisoner Admission

As per universal law, after prosecution each offender should be sorted into one of the following classes according to their offence.

**Offence severity (Please see accompanying document for more details)**

Class One: Petty theft, public exposure and similar offences.

Class Two: Kidnapping, armed robbery and similar offences.

Class Three: Murder, sexual assault and similar offences.

_ (Note: New Shada only accepts Class Four prisoners and above) _

Class Four: Mass murder, regicide and similar offences.

Class Five: Genocide, war crimes and similar offences.

Once sorted into class, each prisoner should then be sorted into a risk category. This is the risk at which they would be if incarcerated inside New Shada. Indications of risk include species prejudice, previous offences and psychological aspects. A separate psychological profile will be needed in evidence upon your submission.

**Risk degrees**

1st degree: _Low-risk._ Prisoner unlikely to be targeted or target others. Prisoner OK for shared cell quarters.

2nd degree: _Mid-risk._ Prisoner may target others. Prisoner OK for shared cell quarters, up to four people.

3rd degree: _Mid-risk._ Prisoner may be targeted. Prisoner OK for shared call quarters, up to four people.

4th degree: _High-risk._ Prisoner likely to target others. Prisoner OK for twin or single cell quarters. Monitoring possibly needed.

5th degree: _High-risk._ Prisoner likely to be targeted. Prisoner OK for twin or single cell quarters. Monitoring possibly needed.

6th degree: _Ultra-risk._ Prisoner will target others. Prisoner OK for solitary confinement with no social interaction, with possibility of single cell quarters after examination at one year. Constant monitoring required via implant.

7th degree: _Ultra-risk._ Prisoner will be targeted. Prisoner OK for single cell quarters with minimal social interaction. Constant monitoring required using a Follow-Me drone bot.

**Your prisoners**

Profile One: The Doctor. Time Lord. Charged with mass murder. Placed as Class Four, 7th degree prisoner. Sentence 25389 cycles.

Profile Two: Jack Harkness. Human. Charged with regicide. Placed as Class Four, 3rd degree prisoner. Sentence 12250 cycles.

Your (2) prisoners have been accepted. Transportation will arrive at 4.9 universal time.

* * *

Just an hour after Zak had sent all the documents Jack Harkness found himself sitting in one of the criminal transportation vessels, his hands and feet cuffed with unbreakable fusling chains that were attached to a wall. The pod he was in was filled with the noise and sweat of other aliens – utterly overcrowding his senses. Various death threats and swear words were flying around the room in the foreboding atmosphere of the vessel, but he wasn’t getting involved. There was a time when he would have as an angry young man – angry at the universe and everything in it for what it had done to him. Now he was older – a thousand years older in fact – and in that time he’d found 20th century Earth, met the Doctor and Rose, saved millions of people and done a hell of a lot of growing up.

When before he would have joined in with the threats of the criminals, now he was only silent and gazing at them with such old eyes, thinking only about the welfare of the Doctor. He was on a separate vessel and no doubt subjected to even worse circumstances as a Time Lord, if one of his fellows had a good sense of smell. 

It wasn’t long until the vessel stopped moving with a clunk, prompting more vile words to spew from his fellow prisoners. The heavy metal door rolled up, and out emerged a crowd of heavily armed judoon, calling for all New Shada prisoners to present themselves. Jack stood up, immediately, eager to get out of the sweaty pod.

The judoon took him through the door, maintaining several guns to his head. He walked with them obediently, through various corridors until they stepped out of the transport vessel and onto the surface of New Shada, albeit shielded in a tunnel with clear walls.

In front of him there was a colossal jet black tower that looked like one gargantuan obsidian shard thrusting up apparently high enough to meet the stars above. Around its shaft in the sky were huge, stormy clouds swirling around its point, as though they were afraid to meet it. The tower itself was glinting in what little light there was, making it look as though one slight graze on one of its edges would sever a whole finger. 

Through the windows he could see the surrounding landscape was almost completely barren – barely a trace of flora or fauna to be seen except some threatening looking blood red plants, and also a large worm with sharp teeth, oozing something black and disgusting as it stared at him as he walked by, safe in the tunnel. Something had clearly happened to this planet a very long time ago that had completely killed all the productive life, leaving only parasites.

He swallowed, but continued walking with the judoon down the tunnel to the end. On the way they passed through several force fields, but looking out of the windows as he walked Jack wasn’t quite sure if they were meant to keep prisoners in or the wildlife out. That worm had followed him all the way down the tunnel until it encountered the first force field, and could only look longingly at Jack’s flesh with those terrible teeth bared.

Finally he made it to an entrance of some kind. He was escorted into a room filled with faceless droids, where his shackles were removed, he was searched, scanned and branded with a tattoo in the shape of a dragon. Only when the droids were satisfied was he moved along, out of the room and to a little window with another droid sat behind the screen.

‘Name,’ it prompted in an electronic voice without a hint of a questioning tone.

‘Jack Harkness,’ Jack replied.

‘Crime.’

‘... Regicide,’ he said after a moment’s hesitation, almost forgetting his cover story in the experience.

‘In accordance with your life span, your sentence is 12250 cycles. You are designated a Class Four, third degree prisoner. Your prisoner ID is NSJHHC1D301. This is the ID of your bunk. Your species and gender profile requires a basic calorie intake of 2,500. This will come in three meals a day at hours one, five and ten via the food chutes. The food is not negotiable. Exercise will be taken at hour three each day. You are permitted social interaction at hour eleven each day. There will be no communicating in communal spaces outside exercise or social interaction hours. This includes telepathy or other forms of messaging. There will be no crime. This includes violence, rape, damage to property, extortion and other illicit activities. There will be no appeals. There will be no complaints. There will be no internal trading. There will be no external visits. There will be no external messaging. You will follow all orders given by staff of New Shada. You may choose to take up a reformation activity after four weeks of integration. By agreeing to this you are contracted to New Shada. If you accept the contract and are found to be in breach of these rules, you will be forfeit to the severest of penalties. If you do not accept this contract, you will be held in solitary confinement until you agree. Do you accept the contract?’

‘I do.’

‘Confirmed,’ the droid buzzed without emotion. ‘You will proceed to your bunk without any social interaction. Your sentence stands at 12250 cycles. Proceed.’

Jack took that as a cue, turning away from the window to another set of doors. They opened and closed in turn in front and behind him, until he was finally inside New Shada.

He was standing on a metal gantry above a communal area, filled with people sitting on the benches below. They were all a complete mix of species – draconian, ogron and sontaran to name a few – all milling around in complete silence.

He instinctively looked for the Doctor, but he couldn’t see him anywhere, so with a glance at the nearest droid who was apparently staring straight at him, he turned and headed to the dormitory area.

* * *

The dormitory area was far more reminiscent of a Victorian prison than Jack would’ve liked. Stretching for miles were small rooms with metal doors, and it took about ten minutes to locate his. When he got there he found a simple, featureless metal room, with a shared toilet through an alcove with an open washing pod next to it. There were two square holes in the back wall – food chutes, Jack figured – which were currently empty. There were two sets of bunk beds pressed up against each wall, two of which contained people. One was a draconian, half of his head scaly, with a pointed crown and ears. The second was a green silurian, also scaly.

They looked up at him, but barely acknowledged his presence. Jack simply walked to the bunk with his prisoner number on the side – the top bunk on the right – and climbed up to sit on it. It was a little hard, but functioned as a bed perfectly adequately. 

He laid down on it, and for a moment just stayed still. There was nothing but the sound of people moving around outside. He wondered how the Doctor was doing.

* * *

The Doctor, having been deemed a seventh degree prisoner, had been assigned a small Follow-Me bot that dutifully followed him throughout the prison corridors, monitoring all that happened to him. He’d also been given his own single quarters, with a bed, a toilet and a food chute and not much else.

Unfortunately on his transportation vessel there had been a Jarxon – a species with a powerful sense of smell – who hadn’t taken long to latch onto the Time Lord’s scent. The Jarxon had then spent the rest of the trip gazing at the Doctor with narrowed, ferocious eyes. The Doctor wasn’t stupid. Being a Time Lord made him New Shada’s number one target, and the Jarxon would like nothing more than to make the Doctor his prison slave. Getting Zak to enter him as a seventh degree prisoner at least gave him some protection and space away from the more hostiles. Not that it would matter much in the long run.

Luckily they had all been escorted off of the transportation vessel individually, giving the Doctor enough time to get to his cell before he was jumped. He was hoping that the Jarxon couldn’t follow his scent.

It was only when he was in his cell with the door closed that he finally relaxed a little, pulling off his jacket to check his arm. There was the dragon tattoo, as was the mark of a prisoner from Shada.

‘First mark on the new body,’ the Doctor moaned out loud, running his fingers over it. 

_ Can you get it off when you’re done? _

‘No,’ the Doctor replied. ‘I’m going to have to keep it covered wherever we go. The dragon breaks when you’ve served your sentence … assuming it works the same as old Shada here. But it won’t break – we’re not staying that long. Just long enough for Jack to find a target.’

_ I still think your plan is mental. _

‘Whatever gets us to Sirrus,’ the Doctor answered shortly, pulling his jacket back on.

Suddenly the door opened. The Doctor looked up to register a prison droid, walking in with hissing hydraulics in its legs. 

‘Can I help you?’ the Doctor wondered.

‘No talking!’ the Droid snapped.

‘Oh, sorry, forgot,’ the Doctor replied meekly.

‘No talking!!!’ the Droid stressed.

‘Oh, I talked again didn’t I? Sorry.’

‘NO TALKING!’ the Droid screeched, and produced a gun. The Doctor shut his mouth, hands in the air. After a few moments the Droid put the gun away. ‘You will follow. You have been summoned to the Prison Office.’

_ You’ve only been here two minutes. What for!? _

The Doctor couldn’t answer her out loud as he obediently got up and allowed the Droid to cuff his wrists with fusling chains. He then followed the Droid out of the room to areas unknown, his Follow-Me zipping behind in his wake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one will come in fives, I shall returneth later! :)


	6. Floor 999

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor answers the summons of the Governor, who suspects his prosecution isn’t genuine. Jack gets to know his new cell mates.

The Doctor was trying not to be too annoying as he walked behind the droid through New Shada, his little Follow-Me obediently whizzing along in his wake beeping politely. He’d tried to dismiss all the urges to talk, but Rose ranting inside his head about his possible escape routes was making that somewhat difficult.

He managed to keep quiet as he and his droid escorts passed through seven security gates, with more droids on each door frisking him for any concealed weapons. Once they were satisfied he was taken into a high-tech lift with a glass side, several guns pointing at his head and chest as they ascended. He looked through the glass to the outside – below was the ravaged planet, with the ship he had arrived on firing up the retros to take off and leave. The tunnel he’d walked through was being sealed and the droids were retreating back to New Shada’s entrance. Beyond that was the planet and all the awful animals it contained – miles and miles of pure desert, and wildlife varying from blood-sucking insects to giant flesh-eating worms that he’d only read about in books he reserved for reading on dark nights. He noticed as the droids retreated into New Shada that the various force fields keeping out the wildlife were being deactivated – allowing all of the nightmare creatures to move within ten metres of New Shada’s gate; ready to pounce on anyone who dared to stroll outside. Escaping was going to be an interesting affair for sure, he mentally noted.

Finally they reached their destination – floor 999. The droids forced him to step out into a new room – an office, the Doctor realised. There were plenty of screens fixed to the wall; a sitting area; a public toilet; and even a receptionist sitting tapping away at a terminal. There were even some pictures on the wall of various fruits and flowers giving the whole room a somewhat happier atmosphere than he’d quickly become accustomed to down in the prison.

The droids forced him to sit in the waiting area, keeping their guns aimed at his hearts and brain. He sat patiently, taking note of the monitors on the wall. There were several monitors of CCTV, showing the communal areas of New Shada, including the entrance. There was also a blank screen, and one screen even had the Universal News Network, currently showing a picture of his face and some stock footage of New Shada. His arrest hadn’t gone unnoticed, then.

Suddenly a voice seemed to sound from a PR system over the Doctor’s head.

_ ‘Please send through the prisoner.’ _

The receptionist nodded and looked towards the droids. ‘Escort the prisoner inside,’ she ordered them. The Doctor was prompted to get up, and once again was marched at gunpoint this time through a secure door and into another office.

This office was luxuriously decorated, with expensive paintings and wall hangings that the Doctor could have sworn were straight out of the Universal Antiquity Museum. There were more terminals, and even a conference table in the centre of the room lined with chairs. Behind that was a desk – very expensive-looking – with another terminal and stacks of papers. Behind it was sitting a female judoon, gazing at the Doctor. 

She gestured for the droids to sit the Doctor down in the seat, and ordered them to unbind his hands. The Doctor watched them, a little surprised. He was now free to move inside the office of – who he assumed to be – the governor of New Shada. He was still still a Class Four prisoner. She was either very stupid, or ...

‘I am General Koboho,’ she told him. ‘Would you like to tell me what you are  _ really  _ doing here, Doctor?’

The Doctor paused, a little stunned. There was absolutely no way she could know about the plan. Could she? Quickly, every single possible avenue of how that information could have got to her blasted through his head. An informant judoon at the Proclamation?

_ Does she know? She can’t know! _

A pause that was beginning to become slightly too long was passing. So he decided to stay quiet, just folding his arms and smiling at her.

‘Do not try to fool me, Time Lord,’ Koboho told him sharply. ‘I read up on every single prisoner that is admitted, from school results to shopping habits. You, Doctor, are what we call a counterfeit prisoner. You have no business being here. Your crime is faked and  _ you  _ are not a criminal. So I will ask you again. What is your business being in New Shada?’

The Doctor stayed absolutely silent, his brain working overtime as Rose continued to scream inside his head.

‘The people of Jarfa Minor, whom you are charged with killing, were killed by a volcano. Can you cause volcanoes?’ Koboho asked without a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

The Doctor raised a slight eyebrow, but still said nothing.

‘Perhaps I should ask your friend …’ She paused, making a point of flicking through her papers. ‘... Jack Harkness.’

_ Doctor, how can she know this?  _

Alarm bells were ringing inside the Doctor’s head along with Rose’s panicked words, but he forced himself to maintain his demeanour. He didn’t reply, just looking at Koboho, trying to read her. If he told her what the plan was, would she try to help or put a stop to it? 

He quickly decided he couldn’t risk his cover being blown. He  _ had  _ to get to Sirrus. It was Rose’s only chance. So he gazed at Koboho momentarily before he laughed, but in no way was it humorous. Once more, he didn’t reply.

‘You visited a restaurant several months ago on Earth,’ she told him smoothly after the silence. ‘You ordered a cup of tea and a chicken and ham panini, whatever that is. You sat on table six with your wife and three children. You were very jovial.’ She paused, leaning forward slightly. ‘I know everything about you. So start talking.’

‘I don’t want to talk about this anymore,’ the Doctor said suddenly as he decided to change tact, narrowing his eyes at her. ‘I want to talk about this place. New Shada. Who built it?’

‘I’m afraid this meeting is about you, Doctor.’

‘Oh, no. I want answers. Shada is the property of the Time Lords and …’ He made a point of looking around the room. ‘Looks like I’m the only Time Lord here. So let’s stop wasting time. Who funded the building of New Shada? Clearly you’re not in charge, judoon don’t run things, they operate things.’

‘This meeting is over,’ Koboho announced. ‘You will be escorted back to the prison. I would advise you to think carefully about your position.’

The Doctor grinned, realising quickly what this was all about. ‘That’s it! I know now. You run New Shada on behalf of your mysterious employer, and now you’ve got me here, a Time Lord, it’s giving you a bad name. You want me moved. I’m so high risk that if I’m attacked, the entire universe will know and you can say goodbye to that lovely quilted chair you’ve got,’ he said, nodding at the chair she was sitting on. ‘This isn’t about what I’ve done, this is all about saving your job.’

‘Droids, escort the Time Lord back to his cell,’ she said smoothly, ignoring him.

‘Imagine it, one of the few Time Lords left in the universe, attacked in New Shada. That’s a headline waiting to happen,’ he continued as the droids advanced. ‘You’ll never get another job again.’

His wrists were clamped back in fusling chains as he was forced to stand up, his Follow-Me frantically whizzing around his feet. He ignored all of this, still looking at Koboho.

‘You’re so desperate to get me out you’ll make anything up, won’t you? What’s going to please your employer, eh?’

She quickly held up a hand, stopping the droids and glaring at the Doctor ferociously. ‘I don’t know what game you’re playing but I  _ will  _ find out, Time Lord, you can be sure of that!’

The Doctor laughed. ‘Go ahead, General. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.’

Two droids dragged him out of the office. He made sure Koboho got a straight view of his widest grin as he was escorted out of the room.

* * *

Captain Jack Harkness was locked in his cell with his two fellow prisoners, both of whom were in abject silence.

He laid on his bed for a full ten minutes before he decided to break the rules, jumping down from his bed and looking straight at his two bunkmates. ‘What time’s lunch?’ he tried.

The Silurian looked up at him, wide-eyed and panicked. ‘We can’t talk!’ he hissed.

‘Yeah? That’s kinda dull, isn’t it?’ Jack pointed out.

‘We’ll get into trouble!’

‘Oh, shut up,’ the Draconian suddenly inputted from the side, looking sidewards at the Silurian. ‘It’s a kashing stupid rule they can’t enforce. Stop wetting yourself, they don’t know.’ He looked at Jack, panning the ex-Time Agent up and down. ‘What you in for?’

‘Killed the Queen of Aminopea,’ Jack replied with a casual shrug.

‘Oh, nice hit,’ the Draconian complemented. ‘I was doing a hit on some politician, went wrong and I ended up killing everyone in the building. Next time gonna make sure my transmat’s working,’ he joked.

Jack laughed. ‘Shame,’ he said. ‘What are you in for?’ he directed next to the Silurian.

‘... Mass murder,’ the Silurian muttered, continuously glancing around as if expecting a droid to walk in on them at any moment.

The Draconian scoffed. ‘You? Mass murder?’

‘Yeah,’ the Silurian replied, clearly trying to sound strong but failing dismally as it was barely audible.

‘In your dreams,’ the Draconian replied, getting up to stand in front of Jack. ‘ Spleehaen Va'A'gnorn,’ he introduced himself, bowing. ‘Call me Spleen.’

‘Captain Jack Harkness, call me Jack,’ the immortal replied, bowing in return. They both looked at the Silurian, who was cowering slightly. 

‘T-Todran,’ he stammered out. ‘Call me … Todran, I guess.’

The Draconian immediately lost interest in the Silurian. ‘How did you kill the Queen?’ he asked Jack.

‘Poison,’ Jack replied immediately. ‘Broke into the banquet, poisoned the wine, and couldn't get out in time.’

‘Transmat issues?’

‘Yep.’

‘Gotta sort out those things, it’s giving us criminals a bad name when we keep getting caught,’ Spleen mused, laughing.

Jack laughed again, deciding quickly to make a small probe for information. ‘I got mine on Sirrus. Never failed me before.’

‘Yeah, mine too,’ Spleen agreed. Jack immediately straightened slightly, ready to attack the topic before they were suddenly interrupted by a tannoy.

_ ‘Exercise hour has now commenced. Proceed to the exercise areas immediately. This is not optional.’ _

Jack looked at his two cellmates, giving a small shrug. ‘Lead the way,’ he invited, gesturing to the door.

* * *

Jack had purposely lost his cellmates in the crowd, and had instead spent most of his exercise hour making mental notes as to the location of the security cameras. He’d noted a few blind spots around the corners of the yard, before he finally saw the Doctor standing perfectly in the place of a blind spot, searching the crowd.

He glanced around for any onlookers, but there were none. He approached the Time Lord cautiously, who caught his gaze and nodded, almost imperceptibly. As he reached the Doctor, the Follow-Me bot almost seemed to jump to attention, apparently threateningly. Jack ignored it.

‘Hey,’ Jack greeted. ‘Okay?’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Been in worse.’

‘I think I found our guy,’ Jack said. ‘I just need to work on him a little.’

‘Who is it?’

‘A Draconian, calls himself Spleen.’

The Doctor pulled a face at the name. ‘Think he can get us to Sirrus?’

‘Maybe. I need some time.’

‘Quick as you can,’ the Doctor told him. ‘Our Governor's already pulled me into her office, she's desperate to get rid of me.’

‘Really?’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Having a Time Lord in New Shada is risky.’

‘I'll bet. Have you had any trouble?’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘Not yet. Early days.’ 

‘How's Rose doing?’

‘I'm fine,’ the Doctor voiced Rose’s thoughts after a brief pause. ‘Please hurry up, Jack.’

‘Working on it,’ Jack assured her. 

The Doctor suddenly looked to a point over Jack's shoulder. ‘Incoming.’

Jack nodded, and promptly grabbed the Doctor's neck. The Time Lord struggled just enough to make it difficult for Jack before the immortal bodily turned him to catch a glance of who was approaching. It was a group of Jolians, all following the strong scent of the Time Lord.

Jack immediately threw the Doctor to the ground, directly in the view of a nearby security camera. The Time Lord yelped as he hit the surface, holding his neck. Almost immediately the Follow-Me began to beep in a frenzy, just as the Jolians reached them.

‘Time Lord!’ the Jolian at the front hissed.

‘Thinks he's all it!’ Jack spat. ‘Thinks he's superior to us!’

‘Does he now?’ the Jolian cried, and made to attack the Time Lord.

Jack deliberately kept in the camera blind spot as he moved around to join the rapidly forming crowd. The lead Jolian barely had a chance to pull back his fist before the droids were on them, restraining the Jolians and forming a protective circle around the Doctor. Medical droids quickly arrived as Jack could still hear the Follow-Me beeping frantically, before the Doctor was helped up by the droids and escorted away. Jack briefly caught his eye – the Doctor just nodded at him, approving. He was fine.

Satisfied, Jack pulled away from the crowd and tried to glimpse his grotesquely-named draconian bunkmate. He had work to do.   



	7. C is for Creipian Maneating Spiders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah becomes bored of the lack of action from her companions, but overhearing a conversation she shouldn’t leads to danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note, I had to look up the size of the biggest spider on Earth for this. It wasn't a nice Google session. For your information, it's the Goliath Bird-Eating tarantula. It grows up to a foot in length and has one-inch fangs, and is considered bigger than the Huntsman spider as it's heavier. You're welcome.

Leah was very bored.

They had been on Colossus Major for two days, and although the inhabitants of the village had been exceptionally hospitable and lovely, nothing, to Leah, had actually happened. There had been no more abductions, and Uncle Brax seemed reluctant to actually do anything. He wouldn’t let her investigate the muddy patch in the hut, or even stray from the village. He wouldn’t even let her out of his sight.

So the third night in, she decided she’d had enough. 

Uncle Brax was nowhere to be seen, and Auntie Gwen and Uncle Ianto were fast asleep on their beds with Uncle Ianto snoring gently. Deciding that no one was left outside she carefully and quietly pulled back her cover, turned on the bed and placed her feet on the rug below. She counted to three, and pushed herself upright. 

The bed creaked loudly. A brief flutter of panic shot through her hearts and she froze as still as a Weeping Angel as she stared across the room at her Aunt and Uncle. Uncle Ianto groaned and turned slightly, but didn’t wake up. Auntie Gwen was still fast asleep.

She counted to ten, and then crept – ever so slowly – towards her backpack and shoes. She picked them up, fearing another creak, but it didn’t happen. She paused, took a few calming breaths, and finally started towards the door.

The latch was the worst part. She raised it, micron by micron, until it was clear. She then dared to pull the door, before finally stepping outside ten minutes after she’d set off.

The village was utterly quiet and empty. She could see a few dying fires through the windows of the surrounding huts, but couldn’t hear anyone or anything asides from the wildlife and the wind rushing through the village, making an ominous howling noise.

She carefully closed the door behind her before she finally pulled on her shoes and hoisted her backpack onto her shoulders. She then checked the village again for any sign of Uncle Brax, but there was none. 

She started straight towards the hut the last abduction had been from, walking across the open ground. It quickly began to feel like an exceptionally bad idea as she quickly realised she was completely alone in the dark. If these things, whatever they were, pulled people underground, nobody would be able to save her …

Not that she had a choice. She continued to the hut, opened the door and slipped inside. 

It was just as they'd left it. Tentatively she moved forward to the mound of dirt – it was utterly still and decidedly unthreatening-looking, but she still treaded carefully. She moved to it, looking at it intently, but couldn’t see much. She dared to move forward even more, and ended up on her knees burrowing through the dirt to try and see what was underneath.

There was a strange white material underneath. She experimentally pushed it with one finger before quickly backing off, but whatever the material was, it was rock hard. She tried again, and even knocked on it. She knocked on it a little harder.

Suddenly there was the sound of a strange clicking, like the sound when she readied up one of her wind-up toys. Only it wasn’t coming from one of her toys. It was coming from the ground.

She got up immediately, freezing in position. The clicking noise was becoming louder …

Without any further hesitation Leah bolted out of the hut, wide-eyed with her dual hearts beating out a charleston. For a moment she just stood there outside of the door, panting out of pure fear, until her hearts calmed and she finally convinced herself to look back inside the hut. 

The clicking was gone, but her acute Gallifreyan hearing was picking up a low voice, somewhere in the distance. 

She frowned, ducking her head back out of the hut again. It was coming from somewhere out of the village. It sounded anxious, and desperate not to be overheard.

Her father’s DNA got the better of her as soon she found herself walking in the direction of the voice. She followed it out of the village, through a small trail and to a forest opening.

It was Uncle Brax, standing in the clear holding his palm near his face. Leah ducked behind a tree.

‘Jack, I don’t  _ care  _ about your plan. If he’s getting attacked then you get  _ out,  _ okay!?’

_ ‘Don’t be stupid, we need this, you know that.’ _

Leah frowned. That was Uncle Jack’s voice, tinny and quiet.

‘This is  _ far  _ too risky.’

_ ‘It’s not like we get a choice.’ _

Uncle Brax sighed. ‘I know. Look …’

_ ‘Don’t bother,’  _ Uncle Jack interrupted.

‘No, not that … Look, you didn’t tell him about … the thing, did you?’ Uncle Brax asked, sounding nervous.

_ ‘No.’ _

‘Thank you.’

_ ‘Don’t thank me yet, I still might,’  _ Uncle Jack replied, sounding a bit bitter.

‘I just wanted to keep an eye on him,’ Uncle Brax protested.

_ ‘Spy on him, you mean.’ _

‘You are making a mountain out of this. I just want to know he’s safe.’

Uncle Jack laughed.  _ ‘Safe? We’re in the most dangerous prison in the universe, trying to get to the most dangerous planet in the universe. Of course he’s not safe.’ _

‘You know what I mean.’

_ ‘Do I?’ _

Uncle Brax sighed. ‘Just keep me informed.’

_ ‘Sure,’  _ Uncle Jack replied shortly.  _ ‘How’s Leah?’ _

‘She’s fine, she’s asleep.’

_ ‘Good. Because if anything happens to her I’m telling him about the VitChip. And yeah, by the way, that’s blackmail.’ _

‘I understand, but …’

_ ‘Bye, Braxiatel,’  _ Uncle Jack snapped, before there was a quiet beep and Uncle Brax lowered his hand. He sighed, for a moment just standing there before he suddenly turned and headed straight towards Leah’s hiding place.

Leah panicked, trying to move before he could reach her but he’d clearly already noticed someone there. He immediately broke into a run, reaching the bushes and launching a hand in to grab Leah’s coat. She yelped, finding herself pulled out into the open.

‘Leah!’ he realised, shocked. ‘What are you doing out here!? It’s dangerous!’

Leah decided she was going to own this conversation. ‘What were you talking about?’

He ignored her. ‘Come on, back to the village,’ he ordered, pulling her by her coat. 

Leah abruptly pulled away from him, his grip slipping. ‘What were you talking about?’ she repeated.

‘Nothing,’ Uncle Brax replied, taking her arm. ‘Get back to the vi-’

Leah pulled away again. ‘What's a VitChip? What did you do? What isn't Uncle Jack telling Daddy?’

‘Nothing!’ Uncle Brax replied, beginning to sound annoyed. ‘The vill-’

‘Tell me!’ Leah wanted to know, standing her ground. ‘Or I’ll tell everyone you’re a big fat liar!’

Uncle Brax fumed, launching out a hand to grab her arm, gripping so tightly it hurt. ‘ _ Do _ as I  _ say!’ _

‘Let go of me!’ she wailed, struggling to pull away but he was holding her arm far too tightly.

‘I’ve had just about enough of you!’ Uncle Brax snapped.

‘Get  _ off!’  _ she screamed, flailing.

’You're just a child! You can belt out all the facts from your book that you like, you can't even  _ begin _ to understand the magnitude of this situation! Now come back to the village or you're going back to the Tardis, and I’ll lock you in your room if I have to! You are just a  _ stupid  _ little girl!’

Leah stared at him for just a moment. He faltered, his eyes widening at what he’d said as his grip slackened. She then turned, and ran.

‘No, wait, I'm sorry! Leah!’ Uncle Brax called after her, but she was barely listening. She slalomed through the trees and bushes and skidded through the mud, out of the forest and into the field with the giant cows. He was chasing her.

‘I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!’ Uncle Brax yelled desperately. ‘Please, Leah!’

She ran, and kept running until she could run no further, panting for breath. Uncle Brax was still with her.

She gave up, turning back to him to shoot him a ferocious look. ‘Get away!’ she warned him, pulling out the sonic and shakily pointing it at him with her finger on the button. 

Uncle Brax approached cautiously. ‘Leah, please, I was angry and worried about your father. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. Truly. Please come back to the village with me.’

‘No!’ she shouted back. 

‘Please …’

Suddenly that strange wind-up toy clicking noise returned. Confused, she looked around, but couldn’t pinpoint the origin. She looked at her uncle. He was suddenly stood absolutely rigid.

‘Leah, don’t move,’ he muttered, his eyes fixed to the ground. ‘Let me just …’

He stepped forward.

Suddenly something black, thin and furry burst out of the ground in front of her, right where Uncle Brax was standing. Uncle Brax cried out as the thin black thing wrapped around his leg and pulled him straight into the ground in a plume of mud and grass, his arms waving frantically.

Leah screamed, desperately wanting to run but mostly petrified by utter fear as Uncle Brax’s cries continued from somewhere under her feet, begging her not to move. Then suddenly he went quiet.

Then, silence, asides from the clicking.

‘Uncle Brax?’ she tried in a half-hearted whisper.

The thin black furry thing reappeared out of the hole it had just made, feeling, ever so carefully, around the edge. It was a leg, Leah realised. A long, black furry leg…

The leg suddenly darted towards her, and on instinct she stepped back, tripping on a rock and landing on her bum in the dirt. She froze, terrified, but the leg hadn’t seem to have noticed. After a moment the leg slipped back in the hole, and once again all was silent.

For a moment she just sat in the dirt, listening to the clicking sounds as she desperately tried to decide what to do.

‘Uncle Brax,’ she tried again, a little louder. No reply. ‘Uncle Brax.’

She finally made a decision, pushing herself to her haunches before commencing a crawl to the hole. She psyched herself up, and peered over the edge.

There was Uncle Brax, lying on the ground straddled by – what seemed to be – a giant black furry spider.

Leah backed away quickly, resisting the urge to scream as almost immediately every nightmare she’d ever had in her short life assailed her consciousness simultaneously.

No, she decided. She was getting nowhere that way. 

She eased away from the hole, checking her backpack for her notebook. She went straight to S, then frantically read her notes she’d copied from her lesson with her dad from the page.

* * *

_ ‘Spiders,’ her dad began loudly, pointing at a crude drawing he’d done on the board for her. ‘Known to be descendants of the Racnoss, did we do the Racnoss yet?’ _

_ Leah nodded. _

_ ‘Good. Spiders as we know them are basically devolved Racnoss. They’re indigenous to the Ugala system from the planet Creipia, but during their evolutionary stages in Universal year circa 1645CE, they spread to most of the solar system. The spiders of Creipia can grow up to ten feet in diameter and are highly poisonous to construct six and below lifeforms. They like warm vibrations and have a tendency to turn up in the engines of large spaceships, particularly cargo and passenger ships. When they’re not doing that, they live in nests underground and protect their queen so she can lay the eggs for the next generation of spiders. She can lay up to a thousand eggs at once. They usually hunt in packs of up to fifty, are carnivorous – well, you are if you’re that big – and have a lifespan of eight universal years. When they catch you, if they’re hungry they’ll tear you apart, else they’ll just wrap you up in a cocoon and store you for later.’ _

_ Leah stared at him, utterly terrified. He didn’t seem to notice. _

_ ‘It was proposed by a Professor of Earthonomics at the Atax University in the 75th century that the spiders on Earth may be subspecies of the Creipian spiders. He proposes in a paper that on Earth most of the spiders are killed in infancy before they can grow to maturity. Good read. Lots of pictures.’ _

_ ‘Um …’ Leah began, her voice wobbling. ‘You mean the spiders on Earth can grow up to ten feet?’ _

_ He shrugged noncommittally. ‘Well, most are probably subspecies that are genuinely just a few inches across, but some could be Creipian. We’ll never know really, as every human that’s ever existed has at least once in their life killed a spider on sight whilst screaming, and also Earth’s atmosphere could be toxic to them over an extended exposure. But that’s just my theory.’ _

_ ‘Okay,’ Leah squeaked. _

_ ‘The Creipian spiders are a chronic problem throughout the universe, and are known to be pests. They’ve killed many people and consequently are routinely killed with pesticide by most civilised planets.’ _

_ ‘Err … They can’t get in the Tardis, can they, Daddy?’ Leah asked nervously. _

_ ’Your mum found one at full maturity in the second console room once and she went practically catatonic for a week,’ he said, laughing at the distant memory. ‘That’s the only reason I keep the harpoon in my tool kit.’ _

_ Leah stared at him. ‘You killed it?’ _

_ ‘Believe me, Creipian spiders are a killed-or-be-killed species,’ her dad told her seriously. ‘They’re not like the Racnoss or other insectivorous lifeforms – they haven’t developed a consciousness or show any signs of sentience or intelligent communication. You can’t reason with one. They’re categorised as extreme pests by the Universal Wildlife Protection Agency and Universal Law recommends you kill on sight or call in pest control. If you see one, you’d better hope you can kill it, because you can’t outrun it. They’re averse to sonic noise for a while, but that’s about it. They’re not smart, but there’s so many of them that if you find yourself in their larder, you might as well start adding herbs to make yourself taste nice for them.’ _

_ Leah stared at him, mortified. Once again he barely noticed, already moving onto the next animal.  _

* * *

There was no utterly doubt these were Crepain spiders. And they had Uncle Brax. 

She had to  _ do  _ something.

She made to get up and run back to the village, but she'd barely managed to get to her knees before suddenly the ground from beneath her seemed to cave in, and with a tiny high-pitched yelp she found herself descending down into the dark dirt.


	8. N is for Nestful of Spiders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah and Brax discover the spider’s nest, with disastrous consequences. The Doctor is attacked.

The fall through the ground was a lot shorter than Leah had expected. After a little yelp, a jolt and an instinctive roll she was upright once more, her little hand clutching desperately onto the sonic screwdriver. Her Gallifreyan eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness to see the spider directly on top of Uncle Brax. 

It then turned to her.

She hit the button, and immediately the sonic screwdriver burst into bright blue life. The spider immediately recoiled, leaving Uncle Brax’s body and instead scuttling off down the tunnel.

‘Leah!’ her Uncle Brax realised, struggling to pull the webs from him. 

‘They’re Creipian spiders!’ Leah told him, glancing around the tunnel but there didn’t seem to be anymore.

‘Yes, we need to leave,’ Uncle Brax said quickly, looking up through the hole they’d fallen into. He immediately reached out to her to give her a lift. ‘Run back to the village, scream until they see you and make sure everyone is off of the ground. They detect their prey above ground by vibrations, everyone needs to get off of the ground right now.’

‘Aren’t you coming?’

‘I need to see how big their nest is,’ Uncle Brax replied, his arms still out, ready to help her up.

Leah shook her head. ‘I’m coming with you.’

The expression her uncle responded with was priceless. ‘These are  _ Creipian spiders,’  _ he stressed.

‘I know,’ she said as if he was the biggest moron in the world, before she started off down the tunnel. Her uncle quickly ran to join her, taking her arm gently.

‘What now?’ she asked, annoyed.

‘I need to temporarily block the bond you have with your father,’ he explained. ‘If he feels you panicking he might do something stupid.’

Leah nodded, allowing Uncle Brax to touch her temples. For a moment there was silence, until suddenly Leah heard a strange dull thud – though it seemed to be inside her head.

‘There,’ Uncle Brax said, pulling back and standing up. ‘Let's go. Stay close to me.’

* * *

The Doctor was sitting on the floor of his cell, rubbing his temples, trying desperately to access the bond with his daughter.

Ten minutes ago he’d been woken up by the distinct emotional charge of his daughter, panicking. For a moment he’d gone ballistic – throwing himself at the door, desperately trying to get out – but it had quickly become apparent he wasn’t going anywhere no matter how much he yelled and banged his fists on the door. Now the charged emotion was gone he was drained, and willing himself not to think the worst.

_ She’s okay. She’s okay. _

Rose kept saying it, not that the Doctor could fully believe it. The feeling of Leah panicking had set his mind on fire. Without being able to get to her or even contact her, he could do nothing but sit there, imagining. Though she felt fine now, the potential images were flooding his head like the worst horror film on repeat.

_ Brax is looking after her. He promised. _

‘I know,’ the Doctor moaned, his head in his hands.

_ She’s fine now, yeah? _

‘Yeah.’

_ She just had a scare. _

‘Probably …’ he muttered, but it still took a good twenty minutes of Rose reassuring him before he finally stood up. As he did the food chute whirred, and out dropped a package containing his breakfast.

_ ‘Inmates. Your morning food parcel has arrived,’  _ a voice boomed from overhead.  _ ‘Consume the food and proceed to the communal area for an hour of socialisation.’ _

* * *

‘I’m sorry I yelled at you,’ Leah said suddenly, looking up at her uncle through the darkness as they walked.

‘No, I’m sorry,’ Uncle Brax replied quickly. ‘You’re not a stupid little girl. I am just worried about your father. I’m very sorry. I didn't mean it.’

‘You can talk to Uncle Jack?’

‘... Yes.’

‘Has Daddy been hurt?’

‘No.’

‘Why are you worried then?’

Uncle Brax sighed, before he paused and thought about that. ‘You and I, Leah, we are part of a race that's almost extinct. We're special, and there are people who will go to great lengths to try and …’ he paused, apparently trying to find the next word.

‘Kill us,’ Leah completed for him.

He just nodded.

‘Will they try and kill me?’

Uncle Brax fell silent again.

‘They will, won't they?’ she prompted.

He sighed. ‘Possibly. But nothing is ever going to happen to you. I promise.’

‘What about Daddy?’

‘He can look after himself.’

‘If he can look after himself then why are you worrying so much?’

Uncle Brax looked at her, slightly stunned. ‘... Excellent point.’

Leah giggled, and impulsively took his hand. ‘Can I ask you something?’

‘Of course.’

‘What is a bond?’ 

Uncle Brax frowned. ‘Has your father not explained?’

She shook her head.

‘A bond is sort of like a family connection, just physically,’ he began. ‘Your father and I share one, as brothers. Your father and your mother have one as a couple, and you and Alex have one to your father too as his children. You might also have one to Alex when you're older.’

‘But what's it do?’ Leah wanted to know. ‘What's it for?’

‘It’s a connection between blood relatives and spouses for Gallifreyans. It allows us to keep a sort of tracking system for emotion on our close ones in a biological way. We can know what they're feeling, and if they're hurt. If one of the bonded people feels an extreme emotion, the other person will get a sense of that. If one bonder is hurt, the other won't feel the pain, but they'll know, and they will know their bonded person needs help.’

‘Oh,’ Leah mused, thinking it through for a moment. ‘When will I be able to feel everyone?’

‘I'm not sure, you are a hybrid so this hasn't happened before. We just have to wait and see.’

‘Do you have one to me?’

He shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘We need to go through a process of sorts, but we haven't.’

‘What kinda process?’

‘It's a sort of mind-opening ritual,’ Uncle Brax told her. ‘Every bond works differently, like your father would have automatically established one with you in the womb, while he had to do the process with your mother.’

‘Womb?’ Leah repeated, bewildered.

Uncle Brax seemed to wince. ‘Ask your mother.’

‘But what  _ is  _ the process thing? How does it work?’ Leah wanted to know.

‘Shush,’ Uncle Brax suddenly said, stopping her walking and pointing through a gap in the wall of the tunnel. Leah peered through it, catching a glimpse of a cavern beyond but the view was too obscure to see much. Uncle Brax moved forward, putting his finger in the gap and trying to claw some dirt away. He succeeded, pulling his finger back for them both to peer through …

‘By Rassilon,’ Uncle Brax cursed under his breath, staring.

Leah could see it too. They were looking into a cavern, which was absolutely filled with Creipian spiders. Along the ground, the walls, the ceiling, and right in the centre was an absolutely giant spider, sitting on a web with the smaller ones running up and down its legs.

Leah just stared. It was like something out of her worst nightmare, and then some. She could only stare, frozen to the spot, clutching onto her Uncle Brax’s hand and her daddy’s sonic in equal measure.

‘We need to go,’ Uncle Brax muttered, looking back the way they’d come. ‘Quickly and quietly.’

Leah obliged, backing away and turning to leave when suddenly her foot caught on something and there was a very loud and very immediate crack of the rock she’d kicked hitting another rock.

She and her uncle froze, staring at one another. Deathly silence followed, until …

The spiders began to move.

‘RUN!’ her Uncle Brax screamed, and she was off quicker than a streak of lightning – though it wasn’t fast enough. She could hear their spindly little legs behind her, scuttling along the dirt alongside the rapid thuds of Uncle Brax’s feet somehow maintaining momentum with the rapid beat of her dual hearts. She kept going, kept running, back to the place they’d fallen into.

‘It’s blocked!’ she realised as they got there, looking up at the hole to see it was saturated with thick cobwebs. She turned back to her uncle, and immediately wished she hadn’t. Behind him was an absolute tidal wave of spiders scuttling over each other in desperation to get to the two Gallifreyans …

‘Keep running!’ her Uncle Brax cried, scooping her up along the way. Then suddenly with a yelp she was under his arm with a perfect view of their pursuers, within inches.

She raised the sonic screwdriver and instinctively blasted them. There was a sudden collective, high-pitched shriek and the closest ones stopped – the ones behind however, just scrambled over their downed comrades and continued. She tried again, dispersing the ones who’d replaced them, but they just kept coming wave after wave after wave …

The tenth time she used the sonic, the spiders didn’t react. They seemed to ignore it – tuning to the frequency – and almost immediately they were back within inches of her and her uncle.

One tried to pounce. Leah screamed and flailed her arms, to try and keep it away, but the sonic screwdriver she’d been gripping so tightly throughout the night was suddenly gone from her hand.

‘No!’ she screamed as the silver device rapidly disappeared under the blanket of spiders. ‘Sonic! Sonic!’ she screamed, hitting her uncle’s back.

‘Forget it!’ he cried, suddenly letting go of her to stand in front of a small gap in the rock. He practically pushed her through it and she landed awkwardly on her ankle in a small nook, crying out. By the time she’d looked up, her Uncle Brax was gone and the tunnel was awash with spiders.

‘No!’ she screamed. ‘Uncle Brax! UNCLE BRAX!’

A thick hairy leg suddenly burst through the gap. Leah recoiled, scrambling to higher ground but the baby spiders were filtering through the gap the larger ones couldn’t get through. She looked up, seeing a bead of light, and immediately began to climb to get to the speck of light. Her ankle was painful but she didn’t particularly care, just getting up as fast as she possibly could to reach the light …

She got there, passed through, and emerged onto a hilltop right in amongst a group of the giant cow-like creatures. The cow-like creatures which she knew, under no circumstances, should she approach.

For a moment, none of them seemed to notice. Then, she realised, the entire group was turning. Turning to face her.

The largest one gruffed, stamped its hooves, and began to charge at her.

* * *

The prison communal room was basically a large hangar, with some benches, some screens to watch and tables for card games. It was filled with all of the inmates, chatting together. Occasionally a fight would break out, but the droids quickly intervened to stop it.

The Doctor was trying to find Jack, but even someone as distinctive as a humanoid wasn’t leaping out through the hundreds of inmates. He, on the other hand, was getting plenty of looks. He ignored them for the most part, at least until he reached a camera blind spot and once again, his new stalker – the Jarxon with a nose too sharp for his intellect – was walking straight up to him surrounded by his friends. The Doctor glanced at the droids, but they were busy breaking up another fight. He swiftly moved into the view of the cameras as the life form strode up to him, leaning in close.

'Time Lord,' it hissed in his face.

_ For God’s sake, not him again. _

'Ever considered breath mints?' the Doctor wondered idly.

'I will own you, Time Lord.'

The Doctor glanced at his Follow-Me, but the other life forms were already on it. Using their strong, powerful tails they swiped at the little robot. It hit the wall, and then the floor with a hiss of broken electronics and a high-pitched buzz that sounded uncannily like an electronic scream.

He'd lost his protection.

'What do you want exactly?' the Doctor asked seriously, deciding to keep the Jarxon in conversation for as long as possible so the droids would have time to find him. 'What are you hoping to achieve?'

'I will have a Time Lord as a slave,' the Jarxon hissed. Then he grabbed the Doctor's shoulder and pushed him with brute force to his knees.

_ Yell! Shout! _

'I'm not a very good slave,' the Doctor said quickly, trying not to panic yet. 'Too lazy.'

'You will have no choice,' the Jarxon told him, placing his hand on the Doctor’s head. The probes of the Jarxon's thin fingers were suddenly trying to burrow through his skull, ready to internally damage his brain into submission ...

The Doctor forced the alien away, allowing him time to launch to his feet and take a defensive aikido master stance.

He’d expected them to recoil at an aikido master, but none of the Jarxon’s friends seemed to care. They ran forward, catching him by surprise and launching into him, throwing the Time Lord against the wall with quite some force. The Doctor managed to stay on his feet and dart to the left, but the leader he had headbutted caught his leg in mid-movement. He stumbled, unable to get his footing before he hit the floor, head first, with an alarming thud that seemed to reverberate around his skull. 

_ Doctor! Doctor! _

He desperately tried to get up or even just look at what was happening, but his entire vision was warped beyond belief. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t see ...

The Doctor barely had a chance to conceive of how screwed he was before he passed out. 


	9. Aversion Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah rallies everyone to try and save Braxiatel. Koboho takes drastic action to force the truth out of the Doctor.

The Doctor woke up.

His eyes slowly adjusted as his ears did too, to find a blurry Jack was kneeling over him, saying something. He moaned at the throbbing pain in his head before he blinked a few times, hoping it would focus his vision. Thankfully it did, and Jack’s face and voice became clear.

‘Doctor, we’re not in the Tardis, we’re in New Shada …’

The Doctor blinked again. ‘Jack?’ he croaked.

‘You gotta remember, please, we’re not in the Tardis …’

The Doctor blinked again. ‘No, we’re in New Shada,’ he said.

The relief on Jack’s face was incomprehensible. ‘Thank god, yes, we’re in New Shada. We’re trying to get to Sirrus, remember?’

‘Of course I remember,’ the Doctor moaned. ‘I came up with the plan.’

Jack relaxed. ‘Geez, don’t scare me like that,’ he muttered, cradling the Doctor’s face.

‘Like what?’ the Doctor asked, looking around, slightly unfocused. They were in some kind of back room and he was lying on the floor. He raised a hand to his forehead and experimentally pushed it. He winced as pain immediately burst through his skull, and there was blood on his hand.

‘Ranting about being in the Tardis!’ Jack replied.

‘I ranted about being in the Tardis?’ the Doctor asked, somewhat blank.

Jack paused, suddenly looking very serious. ‘Doctor,’ he began slowly. ‘What’s the last thing you remember?’

‘Tripping over a Jarxon and knocking myself out,’ the Doctor told him.

‘... You don’t remember being in the Jarxon’s room?’

‘No ...’

‘You don’t remember talking about being in the Tardis?’

‘No …’

Jack frowned, reaching up to check his head. ‘The Jarxon dragged you out of the hall and into its room, I think it was going to damage your brain. I went into, punched him and ran out with you. Then you started saying things like you were in the Tardis. You kept saying you had to get up Leah and you had to visit Torchwood to see me.’

The Doctor blinked. ‘I can’t remember.’

Jack checked his head again. ‘Hit to the head must’ve confused you.’

‘Must have,’ the Doctor mused, and closed his eyes. ‘Rose?’

There was nothing but silence in his head.

‘Rose?’ he asked again quickly. ‘Rose!’

_ Doctor! Are you okay? _

He breathed out a sigh of relief. ‘Answer me faster next time, would you?’

_ You only called me once. _

He paused, thinking about that. ‘D’you remember me talking about the Tardis?’

_ No, nothin’ happened until you said my name …? _

The Doctor frowned, but before he had a chance to think about it he heard the sound of metal hisses in the distance. Leg hydraulics. He looked at Jack quickly. ‘The droids are coming, get out of here. Thank you.’

Jack paused for just a moment, nodded, and bolted off. The Doctor quickly relaxed himself, closing his eyes to play possum as the droids came around the corner.

‘Alert. Alert. Seventh degree prisoner damaged. Requesting medibots,’ he heard a droid say in its electronic monotone voice. ‘All prisoners clear the area. Clear the area or be at risk of termination.’

The Doctor didn’t think there was anyone else there, but to his utter surprise he heard a pair of footsteps run. Was it Jack? No. Too light to be Jack.

_ Someone saw you! _

He quickly feigned waking up, hoping to catch a glance of whoever it was, but they were already gone. Instead he looked up at the droid, blinking rapidly. ‘What happened?’ he said, putting on his best “disorientated” voice.

The droid didn’t answer as more droids appeared, securing the perimeter. Within seconds the medibots were also there, taking him to the infirmary for the second time in two days.

* * *

Leah barely had time to open her mouth to scream before suddenly something grabbed her and plucked her off of the ground. She screamed some more, flailing a little as she was rapidly moved for a few moments, until she realised what was happening.

‘Hunfrid!’ she cried out as his face loomed into focus through the dark. ‘Hunfrid you have to help Uncle Brax!’

‘What's happened?’ he asked, worried.

‘There's Creipian spiders!’ she said urgently. ‘They took him!’

Hunfrid nodded quickly. ‘We shall return to the village,’ he said, and without a moment of time wasted he turned and began to stride back, holding her carefully in his giant hand.

* * *

The Doctor had been attended to by the medibots, and was currently sitting in the infirmary on a bed staring at himself in the mirror across the room. He had a cut on his head, treated with skin sealant, and a dark bruise. So much for the new body, he thought.

The medibots told him to stay put, so he thought it only polite to wait until they’d moved out of view before he got up and started rifling through the nearest supplies cupboard.

_ What are you doing? _

He didn’t answer for a moment, still rifling through until he found a micro needle gun. He quickly moved to the next cupboard, full of IV solutions. He picked up one label kryzomine, loaded the chamber and carefully pocketed it.

‘Insurance,’ he whispered to Rose, sitting down on the bed again.

_ What? You’re gonna attack the Jarxon with it? _

‘No,’ he said, glancing around for any listeners. The medibots were too far away. ‘Because I know what happens next.’

_ What? _

Before he had a chance to reply the door of the infirmary slid open and in strolled General Koboho, flanked by guard droids. He offered her his widest grin.

‘Morning!’ he enthused.

General Koboho didn’t seem in the mood for pleasantries. She moved towards him, her eyes narrow. ‘Please describe who attacked you.’

The Doctor paused. ‘Why? What are you going to do to them?’

‘They will be severely reprimanded with solitary confinement for six months.’

The Doctor internally flinched. The thought of being the cause of someone being put in solitary confinement for any length of time didn’t sit well with him, no matter how much they wanted to enslave him.

‘I can’t remember,’ he finally said.

‘Perhaps it was a Jarxon, prisoner ID NSKOJC4D407?’

The Doctor abruptly realised he’d stepped in front of the CCTV cameras before the Jarxon had attacked him. They knew, and all he could do was feign ignorance. ‘I can’t remember,’ he repeated, pointing at his head.

Koboho clearly wasn’t convinced. ‘Perhaps Jack Harkness may be able to shed some light?’

‘Who?’

‘His biotracker was detected running away from the area before the security droids arrived,’ she told him without hesitation. ‘I believe he followed the Jarxon, saved you, and fled.’

‘Well that was nice of him,’ the Doctor answered. ‘Thank him for me, would you?’

Koboho was clearly losing her patience. ‘Doctor, I do not wish to be severe with you but without your co-operation you are continually in severe danger and will need to be protected. There is only one way to protect you during your incarceration and I will gladly do it to ensure your safety.’

‘Really, what?’ the Doctor asked vaguely.

‘Come, Doctor. You already know. So please confirm to me that the Jarxon attacked you, explain to me what Jack Harkness was doing there, tell me of your plan and I will be able to keep you protected.’

‘So what,’ the Doctor began, ‘you’re going to put me in solitary confinement to protect me? That’s a punishment. I haven’t done anything, in case you hadn’t noticed.’

_ No. Not that. Don’t let her, Doctor, just lie or somethin’! _

‘I do not care. Your safety is my number one priority, and you are refusing to cooperate. I am authorised to take whatever possible measures to help you, and as you know, I cannot change the default procedures of the droids. They will treat you as a sixth degree prisoner.’

_ What does that mean? Sixth degree? Ain’t that for the really bad people? _

‘So, you’ve not thought to reprogram your droids to treat me as non-threatening?’ the Doctor wondered out loud, more for Rose’s benefit than anything else. ‘They’re going to be punishing me because it’s part of their programming?’

_ No. This can’t happen. Don’t let this happen! _

‘Which is why we could avoid all of this if you simply tell me what I need to know. I don’t wish to do this anymore than you wish to receive it but I simply can’t protect you otherwise.’

The Doctor grinned. ‘Word’s already out that I was attacked isn’t it? It’s giving you a bad name.’

Koboho ignored him. ‘One final chance, Doctor.’

_ Please don’t let her do this to you. You can’t go through this again. Tell her it was the Jarxon, lie about the plan, do anythin’, please ... _

The Doctor sighed. He internally apologised to Rose in his head, despite knowing she couldn’t hear him. Getting her to Sirrus was the number one priority, despite how much the threat of potential solitary confinement made him want to throw up what little breakfast he’d eaten. ‘It’s just not getting through to you, is it? There is no plan. I don’t know this man you’re talking about. I can’t remember who attacked me. So go on, protect me by punishing me. I hope you know what you’re doing.’

Koboho simply gestured to the droids. ‘Take the Doctor to solitary confinement cell number five. You will remain there Doctor until I deem it safe enough for you to return to the prison.’

The droids advanced, and the Doctor obligingly held up his wrists for them to cuff them. They ignored that. He was forced to his feet, and immediately a medibot advanced with a needle gun in its hand. Without hesitation it pressed it to his neck and administered the dose. He swiftly sank into oblivion.

* * *

Leah and Hunfrid reached the village in no time at all, where everyone was still asleep.

‘We need to get Auntie Gwen and Uncle Ianto,’ Leah said urgently to Hunfrid.

Hunfrid nodded, setting her down on the ground. She immediately ran straight to the tent they were in, bursting through the door.

‘Wake up!’ she demanded of the two humans. They woke up with a start, Uncle Ianto yelping in alarm before he realised it was her.

‘Leah?’ Auntie Gwen asked blearily.

‘It’s Uncle Brax! He got taken by creipian spiders!’

Auntie Gwen stared at her blankly. ‘Creepy what?’

‘Creipian spiders!’ Leah said urgently.

‘You mean  _ spider  _ spiders?’ Auntie Gwen asked, looking a little more than terrified.

‘They've got a nest under the village, they're taking people! We’ve gotta save him, else they’ll eat him!’

‘Eat him,’ Auntie Gwen repeated.

‘Everyone has to get up off the ground, that’s how they find you and take you down!’

‘Can you just go through the “eat him” bit again?’ Auntie Gwen asked seriously.

Leah huffed, thoroughly annoyed. She forced herself to stop, take a breath, and start again. ‘Okay, there are these giant spiders called creipian spiders. Somehow they’ve got to this planet and built a massive nest underground. People are disappearing because the spiders can detect vibrations above the ground and pull you down, and now they’ve got Uncle Brax. They’re gonna eat him. We’ve gotta get everyone off of the ground and we have to save Uncle Brax!’

Finally, they seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. She waited until they were both on their feet before she ran back out of the door, ready to alert everyone in the village.

* * *

The Doctor woke up.

He found himself sitting on a chair in the centre of a room. He instinctively tried to move, but quickly realised his wrists were fixed. He looked down at them, and found they were held to the arms of the chair by fusling clamps. He tried his feet, but also realised they were held too, though his vision was somewhat blurred.

_ Doctor? _

The Doctor blinked. ‘Rose,’ he replied, blinking to try and clear his sight. 

_ Are you okay? _

‘Yeah,’ he muttered, checking the room again. Now he was a little more awake he realised he was in a small white featureless room. No decorations, no windows, not even any pipes. There was a door, but there wasn’t even a lock or a keypad.

He couldn’t stay here. He had to get out.

As soon as he’d thought it, suddenly his chest seemed to tighten. He looked down in alarm to find a strap holding his ribs had seemingly tightened of its own accord. 

_ We can’t stay in here. We’ve gotta go find Jack! _

The strap around his chest tightened even more. He gasped a little, suddenly finding it slightly harder to breathe.

_ Pretend you’re sick, anythin’, just get them in here and we can get out! _

It tightened to a degree that his ribs began to hurt.

‘Stop, stop,’ the Doctor said quickly, a little out of breath.

_ What? _

‘Every time we think about escaping my bonds ti-’ He gasped again as it tightened again. ‘Tighten. This is thought cleansing...’

_ What? What’s that? We can’t talk about escapin’? _

It tightened even more. Now it was hurting.

_ Oh god, sorry! I can feel that! _

‘It’s trying to stop me thinking about it through aversion therapy,’ he groaned out.

_ But we can’t stop thinking about it, we need to … _

‘Don’t say it,’ he begged, struggling to breathe.

_ Sorry! What do we do? _

He paused, thinking. ‘If I raise my shields it shouldn’t be able to read my mind …’ 

_ Do it! _

‘There’s a chance ... that me doing that might ... block you out ...’

_ No, but you can’t, you’ll be alone and what’ll happen to me? _

‘I don’t know, but I need to ... think and I can’t do tha t... through aversion therapy.’

_ Okay, whatever you need to do, just do it. _

‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered.

_ It’s okay. _

‘Keep saying the alphabet.’

_ A, B, C, D ... _

He raised the shields in his mind slightly, and thought about escaping. The bond tightened, and pain shot through his chest. 

_ Ow! E, F, G, H … _

He reinforced his shields a little, and thought about escaping again. Pain like he’d just been stabbed shot up through the side of his chest. 

_ Oh god, I, J, K, L … _

He reinforced his shields as deep as he could, and thought about escaping. He swore one of his ribs nearly broke as Rose screamed in pain inside his head. She’d felt it too.

‘Rose?’ he breathed, barely able to get the word out. 

_ What? L, M, N, O … _

‘I can’t ... g-get it ... out of m-my ... head, my sh-shields ... aren’t work … king …’

_ Oh my god. Okay, Stop. Just stop. I’ll stop thinkin’ and you stop thinkin’ ... _

_ ‘Talking to yourself, Doctor?’ _ Koboho’s voice suddenly buzzed from seemingly all around him.

‘I f-find it’s the … only way of g-getting intell … igent conver … v-versation,’ he gasped.

_ ‘It seems you have been thinking about your escape plan too much. I knew there was one. Have you discovered that your shields don’t work yet? It is called New Shada for a reason, Doctor, the benefactor assured me that it was built to contain a Time Lord.’ _

‘Who is … y-your b-benefac ...tor?’ 

_ ‘I am not at liberty to divulge that information. Please tell me who Jack Harkness is and why you are here.’ _

‘There’s … nothing t-to tell …’

_ ‘Please stop lying to me, Doctor. I cannot stop the automated procedures but I can help you in other ways if you just co-operate.’ _

‘It’s tr-true,’ the Doctor insisted through gritted teeth. ‘Are you th-that  _ stupid!?’ _

Koboho sighed.  _ ‘Then I will leave you in the hands of the droids, Doctor.’ _

There was a click. She was gone, and was replaced by an automated voice.

_ ‘Prisoner, you have been found to be in breach of your contract with New Shada. You will undergo aversion therapy to correct this in intermittent periods over five days. The aversion therapy procedure has been approved by the Universal Species Rights Campaign and shown to be ninety-eight percent effective in all cases.’ _

The voice ended.

‘Rose?’ he gasped.

_ Don’t think about it. Think about somethin’ else, yeah? Tell me how you and Sarah escaped the mandragora again. _

This time, something moved unnaturally in his chest. He couldn’t help but scream out in pain, as did Rose in his head.

_ Sorry! I’m sorry! Okay, tell me about your childhood, anythin’, just focus on somethin’ else! _

‘C-can’t … br-breathe …’ he groaned.

_ Okay, I’ll talk, yeah? Just listen, don’t think about anythin’ else, okay? _

‘O-okay …’

_ Okay, um … Once upon a time, there was this boy called Harry Potter … _ _   
_


	10. U is for Universal Pest Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koboho continues to torture the Doctor as Jack realises the danger his best friend is in. Leah seeks help from Universal Pest Control.

Leah, somehow, had found herself standing on top of a rock in the centre of the village at 6am, telling people who were much older than her what to do. But none of them had protested. They’d all obediently listened to the warnings about not standing on the ground – not that there was much they could do about it. After her speech they’d found some stones and some blankets to lay over the mud and grass, but they weren’t equipped to deal with this sort of thing. The spiders would not find it hard to take their next victim. 

It was becoming increasingly clearer to Leah that there were only two ways this could go. Either they attempted to evacuate the entire planet, or they killed the entire nest either by themselves or through pest control.

She’d never even thought about killing anything before, so they’d have to try pest control first.

After the village had been told about the situation, she, Uncle Ianto and Auntie Gwen had retreated back to the TARDIS still parked a few miles away in the cave. The moment they entered they had inadvertently woken up everyone else and they’d all gathered in the console room. Her granny was all over her immediately, hugging her to death.

‘Is that it? Is it over?’ her granny asked anxiously. ‘Are you all done, sweetheart? Look at you, you’re covered in mud! Why are you limpin’? Where’s Brax?’

Leah shook her head dismissively. ‘We need to call pest control, Granny.’

‘What?’ her granny asked, confused. Leah just walked over to the TARDIS phone, checking the number on the TARDIS monitor before dialling. Suddenly a hologram fizzled into existence to their right, making everyone but Leah and Alex jump in surprise. It was a female Pastenalean dressed smartly and perfectly coiffured.

_ ‘This is Universal Pest Control services,’  _ the hologram said smoothly.  _ ‘Please state your name, problem and location.’ _

‘Um, hi,’ Leah began, feeling everyone staring at her. ‘I’m Leah. There’s a creipian spider infestation on Colossus Major.’

_ ‘Information confirmed. Putting you through to a supervisor.’ _

There was a brief pause, before a new hologram appeared, another Pastenalean dressed smartly.  _ ‘High greet, Leah. I am Keera. Could you describe the exact nature of the infestation?’ _

‘There’s hundreds, maybe thousands of them underground, they’re taking people and eating them.’

_ ‘I see. We can send out an agent to your location within twenty-four universal hours.’ _

‘What will you do?’

_ ‘The standard procedure is kraxlan gas; pumping it into their nest to kill them,’  _ the Pastenalean told her.

‘But there’s people inside. Will that hurt them?’

_ ‘Kraxlan gas is effective against seventy-nine percent of known species of the universe. I’m afraid evacuation is not our area,’  _ the Pastenalean replied.  _ ‘What is the likelihood the people inside are still alive?’ _

Leah blinked, surprised. ‘Why does that matter? They might be, that’s enough, isn’t it?’

_ ‘I’m afraid not,’  _ the Pastenalean replied.  _ ‘An infestation on that scale requires immediate termination. We would be risking our agents needlessly to save any people who might be alive, when it is likely they are not.’ _

‘But that’s not right.’

The Pastenalean didn’t react to that.  _ ‘Would you still like us to send out our agent?’ _

Leah thought for a moment. Everyone was staring at her. ‘... No,’ she eventually answered. ‘No, don’t send anyone.’

_ ‘Okay. Is there anything else I can help you with today?’ _

‘No, thank you. Good bye.’

_ ‘Good bye.’ _

The hologram terminated and Leah looked up at everyone, who were all just staring back.

‘We’re gonna sort this out and get back Uncle Brax,’ she announced, hoping she was appearing to be slightly more brave than she felt.

‘These spider things have Brax?’ Granny asked, freezing slightly.

‘They’re gonna eat him,’ Leah said quietly. ‘And anyone else they took.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I’m gonna … make something that’ll kill the spiders but not hurt Uncle Brax or anyone else. I’ll put the Tardis in the vortex then go make the gas,’ Leah announced boldly to the group. ‘Then hardly any time will pass so Uncle Brax will be okay.’

‘Can you pilot the Tardis?’ Martha asked.

‘I dunno,’ Leah confessed. ‘I’ve watch Daddy and Uncle Brax. I’ll work something out.’

Everyone just nodded. It was quite odd, Leah thought, how suddenly without Uncle Brax she seemed to be in charge.

* * *

In the five hours the Doctor had been subject to the therapy Rose had gone through almost the entire Harry Potter saga, dutifully avoiding any mentions of escaping. But because she hadn’t included the parts about escaping, the Doctor had thought about them. So consequently the bonds had tightened even more. After the bond around his ribs was at the most as it was going to get without breaking any bones, the tightening had then started on his wrists and his ankles. By the time it was over, the Doctor had been surviving on his respiratory bypass system with the bonds cutting into his flesh. 

_ ‘Prisoner, you will now be released from aversion therapy.’ _

The bonds holding him slackened to such a degree he almost fell off of the chair. He gasped in air gratefully, just letting himself inflate and deflate his lungs for a moment despite how much pain was shooting through where the bonds had held him. His wrists were cut slightly and he could only just about see his ankles, which were throbbing so badly he had little faith in being able to walk on them.

_ It’s okay, it’s over … _

He just nodded, still breathing.

_ Get up. Get up and walk around. _

He didn’t particularly want to, but he knew it was probably the best course of action to get his circulation going. The bonds were still holding him around his wrist and ankles, but the chains now had enough give for him to stand up and walk a few paces. So he did.

The second he placed pressure on his ankles they shrieked with pain and he collapsed forward to the floor, crying out. Almost immediately the bonds reeled themselves in slightly, dragging him back across the floor to the chair.

‘Rose,’ he moaned. His use of his respiratory bypass system had considerably weakened him. He was in an energy deficit. He needed food, water and sleep in that order, and without them he couldn’t think clearly. Whoever had built that chair had known that would happen.

_ It’s okay, I know you’re disorientated. You just went too far and it pulled you back. Just don’t pull on them, yeah? Try and get up. _

He trusted her. He got up. His ankles surged with pain again and once more he found himself dragged back to the chair.

‘I can’t …’ he moaned.

_ Okay, just listen to me. You’re okay. You’re just disorientated from using your respiratory bypass. You can get up. _

He tried again. This time he managed to stay on his feet, despite the pain. He kept breathing deeply, and paced a while.

_ Okay good.  _

‘I need food … water …’ the Doctor moaned.

_ You just need circulation. Keep pacin’. _

The more he walked, the less his ankles seemed to hurt – or was he just getting used to the pain? It was a good few minutes of pacing before Rose spoke again:

_ How’s that? Better? _

‘I need food and water,’ the Doctor said with a lot more clarity.

_ I know, but you might not get ‘em. Just keep pacin’. _

He did for a good five minutes until his head was a lot clearer. He finally dropped back down into the chair, resisting the urge to fall asleep. ‘Thank you,’ he told Rose.

_ It’s okay. _

‘How did you know I needed circulation?’

_ Umm … _

‘What?’

_ Y’know after you got diagnosed you kept havin’ to go into the infirmary for blood washes? When Brax put you under I went into the library to read up about Gallifreyan biology. He told me where to find them. _

‘Ah,’ he responded, slipping down in the chair slightly. There was nothing but silence. He found himself drifting off, his head lolling …

_ No! _

He jerked awake again. ‘What!?’

_ Don’t go to sleep. It’ll make your deficit worse if you sleep now. _

‘Sorry,’ he muttered, straightening up. ‘I need food and water.’

_ Don’t count on any gettin’ to you. _

‘I know,’ he murmured.

_ You can pull through if you just stay awake. _

_ ‘Doctor,’  _ it was Koboho again, her voice emanating out of the walls.  _ ‘Tell me your plan, and who Jack Harkness is to you.’ _

‘You do talk about him a lot, don’t you? Don’t fancy him, do you?’ the Doctor muttered. Rose laughed in his head.

There was a brief pause.  _ ‘You should be disorientated,’  _ she said, as if not quite understanding his clarity of thought.

‘Sorry,’ the Doctor responded to the ceiling, shrugging. 

_ ‘What have you done, Time Lord?’ _

‘This morning? Ate breakfast, got assaulted, got put in solitary confinement and underwent aversion therapy completely illegally.’

Koboho harrumphed, and the comm turned off.

_ I thought this was all an automated system? She’s not allowed to do this to you, is she? _

‘Nope,’ the Doctor replied tiredly. ‘She’s just trying to save her job. Better for me to admit to a plan so she can put me in solitary confinement for the rest of my sentence and there’ll be no more bad press about the prison warden who couldn’t protect a Time Lord from other inmates in New Shada. Her story to the officials is this is for my own protection; officially this is just temporary. But she wants a reason to make it permanent. She thinks she can break me. Old Shada was designed for Time Lord interrogation, and New Shada has copied all of its functions, I’ll bet.’

_ What do you mean? _

‘I had to use my respiratory bypass system. Using it makes Time Lords a little light-headed, me even more so. I’m more likely to give up my secrets if I’m not focused. And I can’t use my shields. This room,’ he pointedly looked around, ‘is designed specifically to make me talk.’

_ Well it ain't happenin’. _

‘Isn't it?’ he wondered idly.

_ I won't let it. _

‘Rose …’ his voice lowered, aware of microphones. ‘If you weren't here just now there's no telling what I would have said to her.’

_ But you didn’t say anythin’ did you, cos I got you out of it. _

‘This is for five days, Rose.’

_ So? _

‘At the end of five days I'm going to be a mess,’ he muttered. ‘I'm going to get worse, especially if they don't feed me.’

_ I'll look after you. _

He smiled briefly at that. ‘I know you will.’

* * *

Jack had been trying all day to find out what had happened to the Doctor. He’d figured the Doctor would be taken straight to the medbay, so he’d got himself admitted to try and find him. He hadn’t been there, and there had been something on the grapevine about someone being taken to solitary confinement.

If that was the Doctor, Jack needed to get Spleen on his side, and quickly. He wasn’t going to let history repeat itself, not for the Doctor.

When he got back to his cell in the evening he found Spleen and Todran already inside, standing in the middle of the room having an argument. 

‘Jack,’ Spleen greeted, his sharp teeth gritted. ‘Tell this kreshka to get out of my space.’

‘I wasn’t in his space!’ Todran yelled, clearly very agitated. ‘I was just …’

‘This is my side, that’s  _ your side!’  _ Spleen yelled, pointing at each side of the room in turn. ‘You stepped over the fulakin’ line!’

‘Shut the hell up,’ Jack swore, stepping between them to pull them apart. He shoved Todran back against his bed. ‘Stay on your fucking side, Silurian,’ he ordered, pointing.

Todran looked shocked. ‘But …’

‘I swear if you come this side again they won’t find the body,’ Jack grated, gazing at him for a moment before leaping up onto his bunk, losing interest in him.

For a moment Todran just stared, wide-eyed, before turning on his heel and leaving out of the door. 

Spleen turned back to Jack, grinning. ‘’Bout time someone told that kreshka how this all works.’

‘This place isn’t for people like him,’ Jack responded smoothly. He did feel a little bad of how he’d spoken to Todran, but it couldn’t be helped. He needed Spleen on his side. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ he continued, ‘won’t have to stay here much longer.’

Spleen’s eyes widened. ‘Why not?’

‘Escaping,’ Jack responded. ‘Gonna get out.’

Spleen continued to stare at him. ‘You serious?’

‘Yeah. I got business back on Sirrus I need to take care of.’

Spleen nodded. ‘Me too.’

Jack looked at him, as if just considering him seriously for the first time. ‘You want in?’

Spleen nodded. ‘Yes. How are you getting out?’

Jack smiled slightly. ‘You know that Time Lord everyone keeps talking about?’

‘The Doctor? Half the people in here want him dead.’

‘Yeah. He’s got a plan.’

‘The Doctor does what he wants. Why would he let you in on it?’

‘Because I own him.’

Spleen’s eyes, impossibly, seemed to get even wider. ‘He’s your slave?’

Jack beamed. ‘In so many ways,’ he mused.

‘But how?’ Spleen asked seriously. ‘How can a human own a Time Lord? Especially the Doctor?’

Jack turned to him, gazing at him seriously. ‘A while ago, he was taken by the Proclamation.’

‘I remember that,’ Spleen recalled. ‘They imprisoned him, didn’t they? Because of Echo.’

Jack nodded. ‘He was put in solitary confinement for twelve years. He didn’t see anyone or speak to anyone. They periodically starved him. He went mad cos of it. I was just serving time in Volag-noc, went for a wander and found him. I was the first person he’d seen for twelve years. I broke him out and we went on the run. He’s lost his personality, everything he was before is gone. He’s basically subservient to me, he’s just a slave in a Time Lord body.’

Okay, so he’d added a few whirly bits and such, but he’d basically stuck to the story the Doctor had told him to say. Either way, Spleen seemed quite convinced.

‘Fulak,’ he swore. ‘That’s amazing. A human owning a Time Lord.’

‘Occasionally he gets a bit of his autonomy back but I can slap it out of him pretty quick,’ Jack added.

‘I’ll bet,’ Spleen said muttered. ‘Well count me in. I’m done with this place too.’

Jack nodded. ‘I want money.’

‘I’ll give you what you want,’ Spleen told him. ‘When we get to Sirrus. On my family’s honour.’

He extended his arm. Jack took hold of his forearm, giving the handshake of honour.

‘Then we’re on,’ Jack said.

‘When do we leave?’

‘I’ll let you know.’

Spleen nodded, turned, and dropped to sit on his bed. Jack allowed himself a small smile. Now he just needed to find the Doctor.

* * *

Leah was staring at the TARDIS controls, her eyes scanning every lever, dial and button. She had watched her father so many times, taking notes as to what he did and when. She was still learning Gallifreyan, but she had been through enough of the somewhat neglected TARDIS manual to be able to name all of the buttons and know what they did. But actually using the TARDIS was a different matter.

Everyone was watching her, anticipating. She wanted to tell them to go away and stop staring at her, but that would be rude. So instead she stepped forward to the monitor, and began to program for the vortex.

It was a slow process. She was moving around the console, occasionally on her tip-toes, tentatively pulling levers and turning dials to very specific positions. The TARDIS made a menagerie of noises, as if she was trying her hardest to do what Leah was telling her, but couldn't quite manage it.

Leah finally stepped back, and looked up at the time rotor. ‘Naqu,’ Leah muttered to the time machine in Gallifreyan. ‘Wi-naqu. Eon’wi-ha’lei qe.’

The TARDIS groaned loudly. Then, slowly, the time rotor began to pump.

‘Wi-kinn! Wi-kinn! Wi-kinn!’ Leah repeated over and over, thanking the time machine with a broad smile plastered on her face. The TARDIS screeched a little more than usual, but she was definitely moving, until they landed with a  _ thunk!  _ that almost made everyone fall over.

She was too short to adjust the monitor frequency to check if they were in the vortex, so she asked Uncle Mickey to do it. He did, and she saw to her utter relief, gratitude and astonishment that yes, they were in the vortex.

‘Did it!’ Leah cried, grinning. Everyone immediately burst into smiles, releasing an unspoken tension as they delivered their congratulations.

Leah almost instinctively looked around for her daddy’s beaming smile and warm hug, before abruptly realising he wasn’t there. Neither was her mummy.

She sighed, and looked to Alex. ‘Kai’gahi’xokla cero’choirr-n.’

‘Jhu?’ the little boy asked in a quiet voice barely heard before.

‘Bionala y kai’lei-o-n, Weepo-Brax’irak-n, tera pohh’wi-aloxer-n.’

‘Shikla,’ Alex replied, nodding.

‘What are you doing?’ Granny asked.

‘We’re gonna make some gas to kill the spiders but not hurt anyone,’ Leah told her, leaving the adults in stunned silence before she headed off to the library, holding her little brother’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naqu – Please  
> Wi-naqu. Eon’wi-ha’lei qe – Please. You have to do this.  
> Wi kinn! – Thank you!!!  
> Kai’gahi’xokla cero’choirr-n – We need to make some gas  
> Jhu? – Why?  
> Bionala y kai’lei-o-n, Weepo-Brax’irak-n, tera pohh’wi-aloxer-n – Because if we don’t, Uncle Brax will die, and daddy will be really sad  
> Shikla – OK.


	11. Rosie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seeing her husband in a state of delirium, Rose takes control of the situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a little shorter than usual, but you'll understand why the temptation to end on this scene was a little too much for me to cope with...

Leah and Alex had spent the next month reading up on various insecticides detailed in a menagerie of books in the library, before finally settling on one called Rastinate. They had then gone to the chemistry labs to make it. 

The process was long and arduous, and exceptionally dangerous. The adults in the TARDIS, desperate to employ some sort of control over the situation, had tried to supervise like teachers but had ended up being mostly redundant. It quickly became apparent to them as things exploded and melted that the two young children had far more knowledge of procedure and safety in the lab than they could ever dream of having. It was almost beyond belief how capable they were. They had known the children were intelligent and their father had taught them well, but to what degree he had seemingly prepared them for this was astonishing.

After four weeks of gruelling work they had made and tested it. They packed it into aerosol cans as well as smoke bombs, and loaded them all into backpacks. They were ready.

* * *

_ ‘Prisoner, you will now be released from aversion therapy.’ _

The bonds holding the Doctor slackened, but he barely registered them. His head felt like foam. All he could do was sit there with his eyes closed, listening to the sound of his own strained breathing as his respiratory bypass switched off for about the thousandth time leaving him even weaker than before.

His wrists were stinging badly, as were his ankles. His chest barely seemed to have enough room left to contain his lungs. He was marginally aware he was sitting in a chair, but that was it. He’d lost track of time, of where he was, and what was happening to him. 

_ Doctor? _

The Doctor smiled lazily at the voice. ‘Oh, Rose. Hi, Rose. Rosie, Rose.’

_ Hello. _

His eyelids drooped, ready to fall asleep …

_ No, Doctor. Stay with me. _

‘Why?’ he moaned, not moving.

_ Cos if you go to sleep I’m gonna be all alone. _

‘Oh.’

_ Don’t wanna leave me on my own, do you? _

‘No.’

_ So come on, open your eyes. _

He did, blinking slightly. The world around him was exceptionally blurry – colours merging into one another with objects lost of form and focus. The only things he could see clearly were his wrists, which both had several bloody cuts around where the restraints were resting.

‘Imma bleeding,’ he slurred. ‘Rose, imma bleeding.’

_ It’s just a few cuts, you’re fine. _

‘I’m so tired,’ he muttered, his eyelids drooping again …

_ Hey Doctor, do you wanna play a game? _

He giggled, waking up slightly. ‘I love games.’

_ Yeah I know you do. Let’s play one right now, yeah? It’ll be fun. _

‘What’re the rules?’

_ You have to stay on your feet for as long as you can. _

He frowned. ‘Don’t wanna play. My feet hurt.’

_ The longer you stay up the more you win, yeah? _

He paused, thinking about that. ‘What do I win?’

_ You’ll find out when you’re finished. _

‘But I wanna know,’ he insisted.

_ Come on, it wouldn’t be a game if you knew! Do you wanna play or not? _

He sighed. ‘Okay,’ he replied. ‘How long do I have to stand up for?’

_ Five minutes. _

‘But that’s forever,’ he moaned.

_ The sooner you do it, the sooner you get the prize! _

He sighed, gripping onto the edge of the arms of the chair. He pushed himself up onto his feet, stabbing pain shooting right up through his legs. He shrieked and dropped again.

‘Hurts,’ he moaned, shaking slightly. ‘Rose, it hurts.’

_ I know, I know, but please, please do this. _

‘And I get a prize?’

_ Yeah, you get a prize. _

He tried again, forcing himself upright. He used the chair for support, desperately trying to stay vertical.

_ Now pace. The pain’ll get better, I promise. Please do it for me. _

‘Ok-kay,’ he choked out, and slowly, very slowly, began to pace. After a few moments his eyes were filled with tears, and the pain was almost unbearable. But he kept going. For Rose.

_ I’m so sorry.  _

She was crying, he realised.

‘Don’t cry,’ he begged her.

_ I’m just … sorry. I’m sorry it hurts you. I’m sorry you’re in this mess cos of me. I’m sorry you’re so weak. So I’m gonna get you out, yeah? Please just do what I say and everythin’ will be okay, I promise. _

‘I love you.’

_ I love you too. _

* * *

Koboho had had just about enough of the Time Lord. 

For four weeks she kept him in aversion therapy, but he still wasn't telling her any information she wanted to hear and she couldn’t understand why. He was clearly deteriorated to the point of delusion. He barely knew what he was saying, or what she was even saying. He seemed to be constantly hallucinating his wife. All of the handbooks stated after such repeated use of his respiratory bypass system he should have told her about his plan by now. Yet still, somehow, that slimy Time Lord hadn't confessed.

The mere idea that he wasn't here for another reason was implausible to her. Why would a Time Lord imprison themselves so willingly and then give up? He was doing something - she was sure of it. Something that was going to ruin her career.

The prisoner commissioner was already on her back about all the bad press New Shada was getting off of the back of the Doctor’s attack. She had utterly no doubt that this was the turning point of her career, and she was determined that the Time Lord wasn’t going to better her. It had taken long enough to get here as a judoon, and it wasn’t all about to be ruined by one jumped up Time Lord, who, as per usual, was storming around time and space like he owned it.

She wished dearly she could question the human, Jack. She was more likely to get information out of him. But regulations forbade it. The regulations also weren’t exactly forgiving of what she was doing to the Time Lord, but although the press and the universe acted like they gave a damn about the Doctor, they weren’t exactly running to his aid. She had taken the statutory five days of interrogation against him, and just granted herself repeated extensions for the official channels. Nobody would know what had happened to him, not really, certainly not the Time Lord in his state.

Gaining that vital confession was far more important than anything else. He needed to be locked away in solitary for the rest of his sentence, and a confession to a plan would permit her all the evidence she needed to do that. Only, the irritating twerp wasn’t even doing that.

Koboho strolled into the communication room, looking at the monitor for cell five. He was standing up again, talking as though communicating was another person in the room. He was hallucinating? Going mad? Something like that. So  _ why  _ wasn’t he admitting his guilt?

She leant forward to the comms.

‘Time Lord. Sit down.’

The Doctor paused momentarily, before dropping in his seat.

‘What is your plan?’ Koboho asked.

For a moment he didn’t answer, his head lolling on the chair and his eyes closing. He made an affirmative noise, as if confirming something to someone before replying through the speakers,  _ ‘there’s no plan ... I don’t know who Jack Harkness is.’ _

‘Why do you insist on lying!?’ Koboho spat.

_ ‘Because it’s true,’ _ the Doctor muttered. He didn’t even look like he knew what he was saying. 

Koboho harrumphed. ‘Fine. Then you’re going to stay here a bit longer.’

_ ‘You can’t do that ... It’s been more than five days, it’s been weeks ... This is illegal.’ _

Koboho glared at him on the screen. ‘You agreed to a contract when you entered New Shada, Doctor. You are the property of the prison. If you refuse to give me the information I ask for, then I am at liberty to take whatever measures I see fit to protect you.’

_ ‘Like torture, you mean?’  _

Koboho silenced momentarily.  _ ‘ _ This is all above board,’ she lied.

_ ‘Not, it’s not … This is about your own career. Can’t you see you’re killin’ him?’ _

Koboho took a breath to reply, but then realised. He. The Doctor had referred to himself in the third person. His accent seemed to have changed, too. ‘You speak, Doctor, but those are not your words. I’ve been observing you. Are you hallucinating your wife?’

_ ‘Okay, fine ...’  _ He suddenly stopped, his brow furrowing before speaking again, _ ‘yes, I’m his wife. I’m inside the Doctor’s head and he is repeatin’ everythin’ I’m sayin’ him.’ _

Koboho stilled, shocked. ‘What does that mean, Time Lord?’

_ ‘It means you’ll never get what you want from him, because even in his state of delirium he trusts me,’  _ the Doctor – or was that his wife? – said quietly, still limp on the chair. _ ‘He’s repeatin’ every word I’m sayin’ and I bet he doesn’t even know what it means he’s so confused. He’s even copyin’ my accent. You can’t win, Koboho. You can’t threaten me to make him talk either, cos how are you gonna get to me? I’m inside his head. So back off, lady. Because I’m not goin’ away.’ _

Koboho stared. ‘This is impossible,’ she muttered, wide-eyed. She jumped to her feet, heading out of the comm room and down the line of solitary confinement cells to number five. She keyed in the code, and the door hissed open.

There he was, sitting in the chair utterly limp. A few moments after the door opened he looked up at her, but there was very little clarity in his eyes.

She strode forward.

‘Stop there,’ the Doctor said quietly. ‘Don’t come near him.’

Koboho stopped, though she didn’t quite know why. ‘This isn’t possible, how are you doing this, Time Lord!? How is your wife in your head!?’

‘Who cares how it happened? What you need to do now is back off and leave him alone. He won’t remember what you did to him, but I will. I’ll spill my guts to the nearest journalist and you’ll go down for rights abuse. If your job means that much to you then you let him go right now. Give him food and water and bloody  _ leave him alone.’ _

Koboho blanched. ‘I do not take orders from you!’

‘He’s got no idea what’s happenin’ cos of what you’re doin’ to him. Do you know what that’s like? I’ve lost him. He was talkin’ to me and now he’s gone. So let him go and fix him or I’ll make sure you regret it. Cos I swear to god, if he isn’t like he was before then I’m gonna tell him to kill you. And he will. He’ll do anything I tell him to.’

The Doctor suddenly raised his hand, slicked with blood from the cuts of his cuffs, and gave Koboho a middle finger.

‘Fuck you, Koboho.’

Koboho turned, and ran to the nearest droid.

‘Release the prisoner, put him back to seventh degree and ensure he receives medical attention,’ she said quickly before heading off as quickly as she could towards her office, as far away from the Time Lord as she could possibly go.


	12. Best-Laid Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor summons the Neo Proclamation authorities to advance their plan. Leah and her group try to tackle the spiders.

When the Doctor woke up, the first thing he became aware of was a painful thudding of a pounding headache in his skull. He groaned and dared to open his eyes. It took a few moments for him to realise that he was in his cell, and a newly-issued Follow-Me bot was hovering quietly next to his bed.

_ Doctor? _

The Doctor blinked slightly. 'Rose,' he said. His voice was so weak it surprised him a little.

_ How are you feelin’? _

'Mm,' he muttered. He managed to raise his head to look down at himself. Abruptly he realised he was naked.

'Rose ...' he began, confused.

_ It's just how the droids processed you. Relax. You're still a bit groggy. You were really disorientated. _

'Woz goin' on?'

_ Koboho had you in aversion therapy. I lost you in about week two, you were really confused. _

He immediately tried to get up, but he could barely move his limbs. His entire body felt like dead weight.

_ Don’t. Just rest here, yeah? You don’t need to do anythin’ but rest. _

_ ‘Exercise hour has now commenced,’  _ the voice said from overhead. _ ‘Proceed to the exercise areas immediately. This is not optional.’ _

The door clunked loudly  _ – _ unlocking. Not that he was going anywhere. He blinked again, trying to focus. Everything remained stubbornly blurry. ‘How long wassa in there?’ 

_ Four weeks.  _

‘Tha’ s’plains it,’ he muttered, progressively trying to move his mouth from side to side to try and get it to function properly. ‘How did we ‘scape?

_ … I’ll explain later. _

‘Tha’s mah line.’

She giggled in his head.

‘Dun’t laugh.’

_ Sorry. God, I’m so glad I’ve got you back.  _

The Doctor laughed. ‘Yeah.’

_ Jack found you in the infirmary by the way, he knows everything. He’s coming as soon as he can. _

He nodded.

_ Can you feel Leah? _

He checked the bond. ‘She’s ‘kay.’

_ She’s never been away from us this long… _

‘I know,’ he murmured. ‘She’s ‘kay. With Brax.’

_ I know. I just miss them. _

‘Me too.’

The door opened. For a fleeting moment the Doctor panicked, raising his head as far as he could until he saw it was a blurry Jack, letting himself in. He looked at the Doctor, stopped, and grinned. 

The Doctor abruptly realised he was naked.  'Jack ...'

Jack rolled his eyes. 'Relax, I've seen it loads of times. I'm in a relationship with your clone you know,' he pointed out. He shut the door behind him before grabbing the Doctor's clothes from the chair as he moved forward to sit next to him. The Follow-Me bot reacted, but didn’t set any alarms off.

'No,' the Doctor realised, his brain moving faster than his mouth could. 'Can't ... Tracker.’

‘Don't worry. I temporarily scrambled my tracker. I’ve got five minutes. I found some diluted liquid nano genes in the infirmary.' He produced a phial, taking the Doctor's wrists. It was only then the Doctor realised they were heavily bandaged along with his ankles. 

Jack obviously saw his confused expression. ‘Restraints,’ he told the Time Lord.

_ The restraints cut into you. Just let him use the nanogenes so you can walk. _

The Doctor mused that he didn't really have much choice in the matter as Jack carefully began to undo the bandages, revealing that he had some long, vicious, bloody cuts around his wrists.

Jack rested the Doctor's hands on his lap, being gentle. He then methodically poured some of the liquid nanogenes onto the cuts, redoing the bandages before doing the same to his ankles. Within moments the cuts had thinned slightly.

Jack then proceeded to dress him, piece by piece. He had to manhandle the Doctor since the Time Lord was so weak, but eventually he managed to get him back into his prison issue shirt and trousers. Jack then covered him with the blanket, making sure he was comfortable.

'Jack.’

'Yeah?'

'Thank you.’

Jack smiled a little. ‘Okay?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Who did this to you?’

The Doctor looked at him under heavy eyelids. ‘It dun't matter.’

‘It does to me.’

‘Is done. Need ta ‘scape.’

Jack gazed at him for a long moment. ‘Okay,’ he eventually replied. ‘I've got our guy for Sirrus. Next time I see you, it's game on, and we're not friends anymore.’

The Doctor nodded weakly. 'Mmmkay.'

'Don't find me until you're ready and you’ve got the plan going,' Jack said seriously. ‘Get better first. I can keep him sweet. Good luck.’

‘You too.’

Jack left, making sure the door was shut firmly behind him.

_ Did I mention how much I hate your plan? _

‘S’good plan,’ the Doctor said, closing his eyes. ‘Will work. Promise.’

* * *

‘It’s a good plan,’ Leah was insisting to the adults standing around her, halfway across the universe. ‘It’ll work. Promise!’

‘Sweetheart, anythin’ that involves chargin’ headfirst into a nest of spiders is bloody ridiculous,’ her granny told her firmly. ‘Call that pest control thingy again!’

‘But it’ll hurt the people inside. I can’t let that happen, granny.’

Her granny sighed. ‘Okay. But be careful. Promise me, sweetheart.’

‘I promise,’ Leah said honestly.

‘Je’kai’lei-n?’ Alex asked his big sister.

‘We’re gonna test it,’ Leah replied. ‘Try and get one on its own and try the Rastinate on it to check it works.’

Alex nodded. He tried to haul on his backpack filled with the Rastinate, but it was too heavy for him. Uncle Ianto took up the duty, putting it on instead.

Leah nodded at him. ‘Okay. Are we ready?’

She received a series of affirmations in reply.

‘Okay, allons-y,’ she breathed, turning to the TARDIS door. She steeled herself, and began to walk forward.

* * *

The Doctor had managed to drift off to sleep despite his pounding headache, but he was woken what felt like seconds later by the sound of his door opening. He looked up – still finding himself a bit groggy – and saw it was Koboho, followed by armed droids.

_ Go away! _

The Doctor tried not to laugh at Rose’s tone, and instead focused on Koboho. ‘Wha’?’ he moaned.

‘I’m just checking to see you are recovering well,’ Koboho said, a little apprehensively, the Doctor thought.

‘I wanna fila complaint,’ he muttered, just about able to say it. Shorter sentences, he decided, with less words.

‘Pardon?’

‘Complaint. Me. File.’

Koboho stared at him as though he’d just stripped naked and danced the flamenco in front of her. ‘... Pardon?’ she repeated, swallowing slightly.

‘Complaint. C’mon.’

‘... You can’t …’

‘Art’cle seven, amen’ment six,’ the Doctor told her tiredly. 

Koboho continued to stare at him. ‘I assure you, Doctor, you were treated in accordance to regulations detailing -’

‘Oi, droid,’ the Doctor said, looking at the nearest droid. ‘Pro’col sixteen.’

The droid snapped to attention immediately. ‘Protocol sixteen initiated.’

‘Doctor, you can’t …’

The Doctor ignored her, steeling himself for a long speech. ‘I, the Doctor, fila comp’aint ‘gainst General Koboho for my trea’ment while in New Shada. I was subject ta torture beyond der Universal Interr’gation reg’lations for four weeks withou’ charge. I submit der evidence of mah own tes’imony and available sec’rity footage of sol’ary confinemen’ cell numbah five. I requesa re’sessment of General Koboho’s pos’tion as Governor by Neo Purokulamation ‘thorities.’

The Doctor breathed out. Long speech over. He looked up at Koboho, gauging her reaction. Her usually beige judoon face was becoming increasingly more red with pure rage.

‘Send,’ he finished, turning over to face the wall.

‘Your message will be sent momentarily,’ the droid told him politely.

‘Cheers,’ the Doctor muttered. He half expected Koboho to smite him where he lay, but she didn’t. She simply left, closing the door behind her.

_ What if she doesn’t send the message? _

‘She hasta. Automa’ic,’ he replied quietly. ‘Den Leya’ll come widda ship.’

_ Won’t Koboho work out that you and Leya know each other? _

‘Nah. Judoon are stoopid.’

_ Oh, c’mon. She was smart enough to work out you had a plan. Besides, you only insult an entire species when you’re tired. Go back to sleep. _

He sighed, and closed his eyes again.

* * *

He was woken up again by a familiar voice.

‘Doctor, can you hear me?’

He blinked, and focused on the face of Leya looking down at him. She smiled briefly, but mostly looked concerned.

‘The Time Lord’s just causing trouble,’ Koboho was saying. ‘It’s typical in their nature!’

‘I’m afraid we take prisoner complaints very seriously at the Neo Proclamation,’ Leya told Koboho, before looking back at the Doctor. ‘How are you feeling, Time Lord?’

The Doctor blinked a few more times. ‘Weak,’ he replied honestly.

‘What did the torture consist of, Koboho?’ Leya asked.

‘Nothing, I …’

‘Do I have to ask you for the surveillance footage?’

Koboho froze. ‘... No. No, you don’t. I apologise. I had reason to believe the Time Lord had a major plan to escape in place.’

‘How?’ Leya asked seriously. ‘He was only here for a few days before you confined him. Time Lords are clever, but that’s a bit fast, isn’t it?’

‘It was also partially for his own protection … He had problems integrating.’

‘To which your solution was to torture him and put him in a solitary confinement cell?’

Koboho was lost for words. ‘I …’

‘You knew having a Time Lord was high risk, Koboho. You should’ve had measures in place. I would like to question the prisoner alone.’

Koboho’s eyes widened. ‘Ma’am, he is still a convicted Class Four criminal. I cannot leave…’

‘Well he’s not gonna do much to me in this state is he?’ Leya interrupted her, gesturing to the Doctor still in a mess on the bed. ‘Leave.’

After a moment’s hesitation, Koboho snapped a prompt salute, and left.

Leya waited a few moments until she looked back at the Doctor. ‘Geez, you’re okay aren’t you?’

‘Yeah,’ he muttered. ‘Jus’ tired.’

‘You’re slurring. Did she drug you?’

‘Aversion ther’py,’ he replied. ‘Bypass. Again and again.’

Leya winced. ‘Oh. Are you still okay with the plan or shall I get you out?’

‘Plan,’ he confirmed. ‘Gotta ship?’

‘Yeah. It’s parked at the end of the tunnel.’

‘Tonight.’

_ What!? _

‘Are you serious? You can barely string a sentence together. Wait for a while, until you feel better. I’ll keep Koboho occupied.’

‘Nah, ‘kay by tonight. M’fine.’

Leya sighed, resigning. ‘Okay. I’ll need a fingerprint.’ 

She took his right hand, noticing his wince. She pulled back the bandages and realised the cuts around his wrists. ‘If you want me to get her fired, I will,’ Leya told him seriously, gazing at the cuts.

_ Yeah! Get her fired! _

‘Leave it. Plan,’ the Doctor replied.

Rose sighed in his head.  _ God, I preferred it when you did what I told you to. _

He smiled a little as Leya nodded, bringing out a handheld fingerprint scanner and pressed it to the tip of his forefinger. It beeped, and she slipped it back in her pocket before putting his hand gently back under the blanket.

‘Than’ you for this,’ the Doctor told her.

‘It’s okay,’ Leya replied. ‘Just be careful, okay? D’you need me to do anything else?’

‘No. All good.’

‘Dad asked if Jack’s okay…?’

‘Fine,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Saw ‘im earl’er.’

Leya nodded. ‘I’ll go and get your fingerprint in the system.’ She reached forward and hugged him. ‘I know it’s kinda pointless to say it to you but be careful, okay?’

He nodded, caught in her embrace. ‘Am a’ways.’

She just rolled her eyes at him, getting up and leaving the cell.

* * *

A while later, Leah and Alex, with Uncle Ianto and Auntie Gwen had made it back to the hole Uncle Brax had disappeared. Leah knelt down beside it, testing. As the one in the hut, the spiders had thickly sealed it up with their webs.

Leah had dreaded this. There was only one other way down into the nest, and only she and Alex could use it. A quick look in the direction of the opening she had emerged from before told her the cows hadn’t moved. 

She looked at her little brother, who had already seemed to have figured out what they were going to do.

‘Qe’afa shikla,’ Alex said. 

Leah sighed. ‘Okay,’ she said, looking at the adults. ‘We’ve gotta find Hunfrid so he can clear the cows and me and Alex can go down and test the Rastinate.’

‘Wait, you two?’ Auntie Gwen asked, a little stunned.

‘Yeah, sorry,’ Leah muttered, and meant it. She took her little brother’s hand, and led the group back to the village.

* * *

Leya was finding herself genuinely angry as she watched a fast-forwarded version of the Doctor’s confinement. He had been left in the cell for four weeks, tied to the chair, without food, water or sleep, and subject to aversion therapy. When it was over she had a very sour taste in her mouth. The Doctor in the image had blood all down his arms and legs, and he was clearly not of sound mind.

She looked at Koboho, who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there. 

‘This is appalling. You tortured him against every single prisoner rights protocol we made,’ Leya said, with genuine bile.

Leya was pleased to find that Koboho had nothing to say to that. The judoon clearly knew she was guilty.

‘I'll need full access to your main security systems,’ Leya continued.

Koboho nodded. ‘Yes,’ she replied, and wordlessly led the girl to the security room. When the system was unlocked, Leya simply ordered her out of the room, and settled down in front of the computers.

She quickly checked for droids, and then pulled out the fingerprint scanner. She connected it to the monitors and uploaded the Doctor’s fingerprint. After a few clicks and a fake profile the fingerprint saved itself in the system.

**FINGERPRINT CLEARED FOR LEVEL 1 SECURITY**

Leya then closed the windows, and went to all of the security footage that contained the Doctor. She obligingly deleted any footage of the Doctor and Jack together, replacing it with copies of other files. She then went back to the security footage of solitary confinement cell five to make copies and notes. She hardly wanted to watch it again, but she had already made the decision that she would have to remove Koboho.

* * *

Leah and her group reached the village to find Hunfrid sitting in the Elder Council’s meeting house, deep in thought. When they entered, he smiled.

‘Leah,’ he greeted.

‘Hunfrid, we need your help.’

‘Of course,’ he said. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘We need to get back down that opening in the cow herd to test our gas. Can you clear them for us?’

He frowned slightly. ‘I hope you are not putting yourself in danger.’

Leah could hardly deny it. ‘Sorry,’ she ended up saying with a small shrug.

He sighed. The ejection of his huge lungs blew back Leah’s hair slightly. ‘You are very much like your father, you know.’

Leah smiled. ‘Hope so,’ she replied.

‘Okay,’ he replied, getting up to leave the meeting house. They emerged into the sunlight and made to head towards the cow herd, when suddenly there was a scream.

‘Who was that?’ Auntie Gwen asked quickly, looking around in a panic. Leah looked up just in time for another scream, seeing a village resident descend down through the dirt into the ground.

‘They’re taking—’ Auntie Gwen began, when the ground suddenly exploded from under her and she disappeared in a scream, straight down in a flail of limbs. Then everyone was screaming and running.

‘Don’t move! It’s the vibrations in your feet!’ Leah yelled over the cacophony, but no one was listening. The people who had made it to the stones were desperately trying to help their fellow villagers, taking daring strides out to the dirt where they disappeared in a yelp.

There was nothing Leah could do to help them. Hunfrid immediately reached down to scoop them and Uncle Ianto up, but as Uncle Ianto took a stride the ground exploded again, a black furry leg hooking around his foot. Alex, who had been standing next to Uncle Ianto, lost his footing in the hole …

Leah screamed in Hunfrid’s grip, throwing out her hand to grab her little brother but a spider leg was already gripping his foot.

‘Let him  _ go!’  _ Leah shouted, clinging for dear life onto his hand. He was staring up at her, tears in his eyes, stretched between her and the spider …

‘Jarrr!’ Leah screamed in Gallifreyan. ‘Jarrr!!!’

Her little brother was flailing his legs, trying to get the spider off of him but its grip remained resolute.

‘Naqq! Wi-naqq!’ Leah yelled.

Hunfrid’s huge hand suddenly plummeted into the dirt around Alex, enveloping a hand around him and attempting to pull him out. But it was obvious whatever the spider had latched onto underground was a firm and fast hold. Clearly Hunfrid worked out if he held on for much longer Alex was going to get hurt. He let go.

‘Help!’ was the last thing her little brother cried as he disappeared into the ground.

‘No! No!!! Alex!’ Leah screamed until her throat was raw, tears running down her cheeks. But it wasn’t going to make any difference. Spiders were already heading up Hunfrid’s legs, trying to immobilize him. He kicked them off as best he could and began to run across the village to the herd of cows. It took barely thirty seconds at his pace. He cleared the cows with a few waves of his arm, and placed Leah down next to the hole in the ground.

‘Good luck!’ Hunfrid cried to the little girl, trying to kill the spiders running all over him. Leah didn’t waste any time. She dropped into the hole and quickly climbed down the rocks. It turned dark – Hunfrid was covering up the entrance to prevent any spiders pursuing her. But she could still hear the screams of the villagers from both above ground and through the tunnels. She swore she heard her little brother cry her name.

She was on her own now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Je’kai’lei-n? - What are we going to do?  
> Ce’afa shikla. - It’s okay.   
> Jarrr! - Hold on!  
> Naqq! Wi-naqq! - Please! Please!


	13. Master Jack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah enters the spider's nest. A fight breaks out in New Shada.

Leah took a few deep, steely breaths, took an aerosol can out of her backpack along with a torch and slipped through the gaps in the rocks.

She could still hear the screams of the poor people taken underground by the spiders, somewhat muffled by the dirt. In amongst them she knew was her terrified little brother. If he struggled, if they bit him, he would die.

The thought propelled her to move up the tunnel, taking small, silent steps. Quite soon she heard a scuttling sound – a spider was heading straight towards her. She forced herself to stand her ground, the aerosol can clutched in her sweaty hand.

‘C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,’ she muttered to herself, poised.

The spider came around the corner. Leah flashed up the torch, the beam of light cutting through the darkness straight onto the creature. The spider seemed to pause, and then launched straight at her.

Leah raised the aerosol can and pressed down. The Rastinate sprayed out of the end in a powerful arc, landing directly on the spider. 

For a moment, nothing happened. Then just as Leah thought it was going to grab her, the spider emitted a high-pitched squeak and stopped, its legs curling in on itself. Then there was only the sound of the distant screams. Leah forced herself to move forward, experimentally poking the spider with her foot. It didn’t move.

It was dead. The Rastinate worked.

She finally breathed, taking a few moments to steady her racing hearts before another scream jolted her back to reality. Giving the spider a wide berth, she edged around the tunnel, almost not noticing the small silver glint on the floor. The sonic screwdriver, she realised. Her hearts raced as she dived to take it, where it slotted neatly back into her right hand.

With a renewed confidence, she straightened up and continued to the nest.

* * *

Jack was in the communal area with Spleen when he saw the Doctor in the middle of the social interaction hour. Jack was a bit astonished. He was a mile away from the man he’d helped that morning, seemingly alert and poised.

For a moment, Jack wasn’t sure whether to approach him. But after a few seconds the Doctor looked over at him, and nodded. Jack nodded in return. It was time to get to Sirrus.

‘There he is!’ Jack exclaimed to Spleen, who looked up with mild interest. He saw the Doctor across the room, who was pretending not to have noticed them. ‘Time to go,’ he said, beckoning Spleen as he moved straight to the Doctor.

As they approached, the Doctor turned, looking at him and Spleen as if noticing them for the first time. ‘Master Jack,’ he acknowledged. ‘I’m so glad you’re safe.’

‘I want out. You got an escape plan yet?’

‘Yes, Master Jack. Who is this?’ he pointed at Spleen.

‘Never mind who the fuck he is, he’s coming with us,’ Jack snapped back, catching a glance of Spleen standing there, utterly mesmerised. The Doctor stayed still for a moment, looking confused. Jack immediately launched forward, grabbing the Time Lord’s chin with his left hand and pulling back a threatening fist. The Follow-Me bot emitted a quiet warning beep.

‘Are you forgetting who saved you? Don’t question me, you little shit,’ Jack spat in his face.

The Doctor nodded hastily. ‘I’m sorry, Master Jack.’

‘That’s better,’ Jack approved, pulling back.

‘This is fulakin’ crazy,’ Spleen whispered, still transfixed.

‘Now get me the fuck out of here, I’m done with it,’ Jack said, ignoring Spleen.

‘Yes, Master Jack,’ the Doctor replied. ‘We can go tonight.’

‘Where do you need me to be?’

‘In your cell,’ the Doctor replied. ‘I’ll find you.’

* * *

After Jack and Spleen had reached the door, the Doctor began to head back to his cell. 

‘Okay?’ he asked Rose.

_ This is so insane. I thought he was gonna punch you. _

‘He might have to,’ the Doctor told her, trying to ignore the people staring at him. He was acutely aware that four weeks had allowed word to get around New Shada about the Time Lord’s presence and what he looked like. A lot of the inmates were now pointing at him and whispering.

_ Um, what? _

‘If Spleen starts thinking I’m more than Jack’s slave, he’s going to have to hit me.’

_ Well tell him for every time he hits you I’m gonna slap him twice as hard, yeah? _

The Doctor smiled. ‘Thanks,’ he said, passing into the corridor back to the cells.

_ Why are you even his slave? _

‘Because Spleen will suspect because I’m Time Lord, I’m going to be tricking him. He has to believe Jack is controlling me fully for his own gain.’

Suddenly he realised that he was being tailed by the Jarxons. He internally sighed and deftly tried to lose them, taking winding routes and doubling back on himself. But he was savagely outnumbered seven to one. Any route he took they covered.

Eventually he ended up going back to the communal area where there were more cameras and droids, but quickly realised that he was being closed in on all sides by the other inmates. Quite soon he found himself standing in the middle of the corridor, surrounded on both sides by lots of people. This had clearly been planned. While he’d been busy with his own escape, clearly the rest of the inmates had been making their own plans. 

_ Oh my god. Run. _

‘Nowhere to go,’ the Doctor muttered, his eyes flashing back and forth. He was completely surrounded. His Follow-Me was trapped outside the circle. He had to stand his ground. ‘Come on, then,’ the Doctor said loudly to the crowd. ‘What’s the plan? Going to beat me up?’

Out stepped a zagron, heading towards him. The Doctor’s Follow-Me bot made a noise, seemingly anticipating what was about to happen.

‘You’re a Time Lord,’ the zagron stated.

‘That’s me, I’m the Doctor,’ the Time Lord confirmed, resorting to his usual confidence. ‘What’s your name?’

‘I am G’nahid of Buak,’ G’nahid replied snidely. ‘Remember me?’

‘Pardon?’

‘You slaughtered most of my planet in your stupid pathetic Time War,’ G’nahid spat. ‘Just because a Dalek ship flew past us. You destroyed my people!’

‘That wasn’t me,’ the Doctor replied honestly. ‘I didn’t have any part in that.’

‘It was your race!’ G’nahid snapped.

‘It had nothing to do with me.’

‘You caused my husband to die,’ another voice suddenly said from behind him. He turned to see an angry female Ogron. ‘You came to Braah, it was  _ you.’ _

‘Who was your husband?’ the Doctor asked, bewildered.

‘Gnyroe!’

The Doctor gazed at her. ‘He was extorting the ogrons for money to fund his …’ He paused. ‘Wait, he didn’t die. He was arrested.’

‘Tried and executed!’ the female ogron spat.

The Doctor’s eyes widened. ‘Executed? But …’

‘You got my parents killed!’ a young hezzan yelled. ‘I was orphaned and had no one to help!’

‘I …’ the Doctor began, but his protests were suddenly lost in amongst the chorus of people now screaming out what he or his species had done to them.

‘You killed my son!’

‘You destroyed my life!’

‘You made me kill him!’

_ Oh my god. They hate you. _

The yelling only ceased when suddenly the crowd parted, and through emerged the lead Jarxon. ‘I say we show him what it’s like to be a victim,’ it hissed.

There was a chorus of affirmations from the gathered crowd.

_ Run! _

The Doctor spun on his heels, looking among the crowd for any escape route. There was none. So he bolted, running to the least-densely populated part of the crowd.

It didn’t take much effort on their part to stop him, turning him back to face the Jarxon, holding his arms firmly in restraint. The Jarxon and its group were still heading towards him at a steady pace, all of them looking ready to kill.

The Doctor took a deep breath, and braced himself for pain.

‘Hey!’

_ Oh, thank god! _

‘Master Jack!’ the Doctor called, looking up desperately to try and find him. He could see Jack shoving his way through the crowd, alarmed at the situation the Doctor was in. He finally reached the Doctor, pulling him away from the hands that held him, shoving him against the wall and standing in front of him.

‘This Time Lord is mine, he’s my slave,’ Jack snapped at the Jarxon and the crowd. ‘Back the hell off.’

‘How can a human possibly own a Time Lord?’ the Jarxon laughed, the crowd with him. ‘He’s property of the Jarxons now. Step aside, human.’

‘Sorry, you must’ve misheard me. I said  _ back the hell off,’  _ Jack grated.

The Jarxon laughed. A wheezy, deep laugh. ‘You’re asking to die, human.’

Jack rested a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder, squeezing it. ‘Well, if you wanna play it that way …’ He looked at the Time Lord, and nodded to the Jarxon. ‘Kill him.’

_ What!? _

The Doctor stared at him, alarmed. For a moment he did nothing, so Jack raised a hand and slapped him fully across the face.

Rose shrieked inside the Doctor’s head as he recoiled, crying out. Jack looked at him, his eyes narrowed and on fire.

_ ‘Kill. Him,’  _ he grated.

The Doctor pressed a hand to his lip. Jack had split it. Was he serious?

‘Yes, Master Jack,’ was all he could croaked as he abruptly realised he had no choice. Glancing at Jack, he stepped forward to the Jarxon, and took a fighting stance.

The Jarxon laughed. ‘He’s going to fight me.’

‘Yes, he is,’ Jack affirmed.

‘You can’t be serious, human.’

‘Completely,’ Jack said coolly. ‘Show ‘em, Doctor.’

The Doctor didn’t reply. He was wondering if Jack had gone insane, or there was some sort of backup plan he wasn’t aware of. But it quickly became apparent as the Jarxon stepped forward, that he was going to have to follow through with this.

The Jarxon threw a fist as the crowd began to chant for the Time Lord’s death. The Doctor parried with ease, grabbing the Jarxon’s arm and twisting it – immobilising him – placing a sharp kick to the back of the Jarxon’s leg. The Jarxon fell to his knees, its right arm held straight behind his back by the Time Lord.

The Jarxon shrieked, infuriated. ‘Kill him!’ he cried, and suddenly the Doctor was aware of someone moving up behind him. He turned to defend himself, just in time to receive what felt like a sledgehammer in his ribs as he was sent flying into the wall.

‘Doctor!’ Jack cried as the Doctor slid down the wall to come to a heaped mess of limbs at the bottom, winded.

_ Get up, get up! _

Another Jarxon was approaching him. He impulsively did a sweeping kick, catching the Jarxon’s legs and sending him to the ground. But as soon as the Doctor was upright, three more were already holding him as the crowd cheered uproariously.

One of the Jarxon’s placed its fingers on his head. He struggled, but he couldn’t move.

_ No, no, no! _

‘Stop or I’ll kill him!’

The Doctor looked up to see Jack was standing over the lead Jarxon, his hands around the alien’s head, ready to snap his neck.

_ ‘Stay where you are or suffer punishment!’  _ an angry voice screamed from overhead. Immediately there was utter chaos as everyone ran in different directions – some to the communal room, others to their cells, and everyone in-between immediately crushed. The Doctor felt a hand on his arm, looking up to see Jack pulling him out of the crowd. After a few shoves and knocks they made it out of the worst of it, running down a corridor. The Follow-Me bot, finally reunited with the Doctor, was struggling to keep up.

Finally they came to a halt in an unpopulated area, the Doctor coughing and holding his side.

‘Sorry,’ Jack said quickly, constantly checking the perimeter. ‘I’d heard there was a plan to confront you but I didn’t think it’d be this quick. And I’m sorry I hit you so hard. We need to run.’

‘We need to use this distraction,’ the Doctor said. ‘Get Spleen and meet me at the entrance.’

Jack nodded, and ran off.

* * *

Jack had only just got onto the corridor his cell was on when he had to skid to a halt to avoid colliding with Todran, standing outside the door.

‘Get out the way!’ Jack snapped.

‘H-he’s not your slave,’ Todran muttered nervously.

‘What?’

‘I saw you in the corridor … after the first attack. The Time Lord isn’t your slave ... You’ve lied to Spleen, to everyone. Y-you and the Time Lord need him for something, don’t you? Why are you pretending?’

Jack’s eyes narrowed. ‘You should leave before you get hurt.’

‘You’re escaping,’ Todran continued, clearly absolutely petrified and doing a bad job of hiding it. ‘If … If you don’t … want me to tell Spleen you’re lying to him then take me with you.’

He was shaking. Jack sighed. ‘Geez, all right, go to the entrance and tell the Doctor you’re coming. I need to get Spleen.’

Todran nodded, and ran.

* * *

The Doctor was hiding in an alcove near the entrance with his ever-devoted Follow-Me bot, waiting for Jack to appear. Rose had been ranting inside his head for a whole five minutes now.

_ I’m gonna smack him one for hittin’ you! _

‘It’s okay, he needed to,’ the Doctor muttered.

_ Did he? Rubbish! Definitely not so hard! Who the hell’s that? _

A small, weak-looking silurian was running towards the entrance. As he passed the Doctor grabbed his shirt and pulled him into the alcove to shield him from the droids. The silurian panicked, but stilled at the sight of the Doctor.

‘You should be in your cell,’ the Doctor told him.

‘I’m T-Todran …’ the alien said. He was unbelievably nervous. ‘I’m Jack’s cellmate.’

‘And? Go back.’

Todran seemed to steel himself for his next sentence. ‘I know about you and Jack. I know you’re lying to Spleen, I saw you a month ago. Jack said I could come.’

The Doctor sighed. ‘Blackmail, then,’ he surmised.

‘I’m not staying here.’

‘What are you in for?’

‘M-mass murder,’ Todran muttered without much conviction.

The Doctor considered that sentence, along with the trembling alien standing in front of him. ‘And now the truth?’

‘It  _ is  _ the truth,’ Todran protested.

‘You’ve never killed anyone in your life,’ the Doctor stated.

‘Y-yeah, I have …’

The Doctor sighed. ‘That’s not something to be proud of, you know. Don’t even lie about it. It won’t get you anywhere, not with me.’

Todran faltered. ‘... Okay. I haven’t killed anyone.’

‘So why are you here?’ the Doctor asked.

‘I got … I got paid to serve someone’s sentence.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Second thoughts?’

‘I don’t want to stay here anymore,’ Todran muttered. ‘I wanna go home. I hate this place. Everyone here is sick.’

The Doctor nodded again. ‘Stick close to me and Jack.’

Todran nodded, and ten seconds later Jack appeared down the end of the corridor with Spleen in tow. He ran to them, piling into the alcove.

‘The droids are searching the cells for you and me,’ he whispered to the Doctor. ‘Get us out of here.’

‘Yes, Master Jack,’ the Doctor responded politely.

‘No, wait, what’s  _ he  _ doing here?’ Spleen suddenly spat, looking at Todran.

‘Money,’ Jack responded as the Doctor moved to the nearest terminal, pretending to hack it. He then pressed his finger to the lock. It turned green, the door opened, and the Doctor gestured for them to go through.   



	14. Death by Worm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The convicts begin their escape attempt.

The Doctor led the motley group of convicts through security door after security door, towards the entrance of the prison without a hitch. All of the droids were busy searching for him and Jack, seemingly completely flummoxed by the fact none of their trackers were working, suppressed by Leya’s meddling in the security systems. Not for long, though.

Finally after about seven doors, the Doctor heard a droid. He quickly dived into an alcove. The others followed without question, and they waited for the hiss of air and clangs of metal on metal to pass. Once it had gone, they got up and kept moving until they ended up at another fingerprint scanner. He pressed his forefinger to the device, and it politely beeped, flashed green, and the door slid open. The group moved though.

They were now in the prisoner processing area – a huge room populated exclusively by droids filled with machinery. They had to quickly duck behind some steps as a particularly large droid rolled by, much bigger than its counterparts, with wheels and a gun built into its arm. A sentry. 

‘What now?’ Spleen wanted to know.

Everyone ignored him. The Doctor peered around the steps, watching the droids. He took in their movements and any pattern they repeated. One sentry would roll by where they were, and then there would be a five second period where they weren’t being watched. Originally the Doctor had planned to leave when the new prisoner intake arrived, but since their plan had been moved forward they’d have to do it without the aid of the crowd. Which made things just a little more dangerous.

_ I know you can’t talk but please, please don’t get caught. _

He wasn’t planning to, the Doctor mused, checking the droids again. They were still exhibiting the same movement pattern. He looked back at his group. Spleen looked impatient, Todran was shaking slightly and Jack was gazing at him, his eyes full of trust. He looked at Jack.

‘We have to run, Master Jack,’ the Doctor informed him. ‘We’ll have to time our run behind the closest sentry, to get to possession storage to retrieve our items.’

‘Is he insane?’ Spleen whispered, somewhat high-pitched.

‘If he says that’s what we’ve gotta do, then that’s what we’ve gotta do,’ Jack replied simply. ‘When do we run, Doctor?’

The Doctor pointed at the nearest patrolling sentry. ‘As soon as this sentry is past us, Master Jack. We will have to go one by one.’

He made a point of removing his prison issues shoes, and they all followed. The least noise as possible. He then checked the sentry again.

‘Follow my lead, Master Jack,’ he said, before he took a deep breath, poised. He waited until the first possible moment ... and ran.

With his bare feet skipping across the metal, he sprinted with every modicum of speed he had to possession storage across the room, his Follow-Me whizzing along behind him. He reached the doorway, jabbed a finger on the lock, bouncing from foot to foot impatiently until the door opened and he jumped through. 

He waited a few moments, almost expecting the loud din of alarms to start up. It was ten seconds until he breathed out, straightening up. There were no droids in here.

_ Oh my god, I’m so scared. _

‘We’re okay,’ he assured her. ‘We’ve got time.’

He looked across the room at the other three, clearly astonished by the fact he’d made it. He waited for the sentry to roll around again, before waving his hand. Jack bolted across the room next, stumbling to a halt next to the Time Lord.

‘Shit,’ he breathed. ‘Don’t like this.’

The Doctor just nodded, checking the sentry again. He waved his arm, and Spleen came bolting across. Just Todran left.

‘Where next?’ Spleen asked.

‘Wait for Todran,’ Jack replied. 

Spleen scoffed. ‘Why?’ He shoved the Doctor. ‘Let’s fulaking go, Time Lord.’

Jack quickly intervened. ‘Doctor, we want the silurian. Get him across.’

‘Yes, Master Jack,’ the Doctor replied, checking the sentry again.

‘Oh, come on, what’s he paying you? I’ll double it for you to leave him behind,’ Spleen insisted.

The Doctor gestured for Todran. Todran immediately ran, but he was obviously so terrified he was barely looking where he was going, and two seconds later he caught his foot and went plummeting to the floor.

‘Fulaking idiot!’ Spleen hissed under his breath. The Doctor ran out immediately, grabbing Todran’s arm and hauling him to his feet, half-dragging him to safety. They only just made it into the room, where the Doctor quickly sealed the door closed.

‘By Janos,’ Spleen blasphemed. ‘You piece of …’

‘Master Jack,’ the Doctor interrupted, trying not to let his irritation show. ‘We need to get our possessions.’

Jack nodded, stepping aside to allow the Doctor to finally look at the room they were in. To his complete surprise, he realised the room was very small, apart from a terminal in the centre. He’d taken extensive notes when he’d been brought in﹘this was definitely the place they’d taken his clothes. 

He stepped through the group to the terminal monitor and entered his prisoner identification number on the keypad. The terminal turned, and seconds later he saw his clothes folded neatly into the space. He took them, pausing to consider this. There was only one explanation for this, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.

_ Ain’t that Time Lord technology? Bigger on the inside? _

The Doctor couldn’t reply verbally as the terminal automatically turned back to the monitor.

_ … Don’t get mad, okay? Just escape. _

He paused, biting his lip. He then did as she ordered, entering in Jack’s ID, and then Spleen’s and Todran’s from the number on their uniforms. He handed out the clothes and other possessions, retaining Jack’s manipulator for a moment. He experimentally tested it, but as he’d supposed, there was a vortex-power suppression field. More Time Lord technology.

He handed it to Jack with a look that he hoped conveyed a serious undertone. There was only one man who could possibly have the knowledge to replicate this technology. The Master. Not that Jack would know that. He seemed to register something was wrong anyway, nodding as he took his manipulator back.

_ Worry about it later, yeah? We gotta get out. Don’t get caught. _

The Doctor subtly nodded as everyone quickly got changed into their old clothes, dispensing with the prison uniforms in a pile on the floor. Soon they were ready; the Doctor felt a bit more comfortable back in his usual suit, coat and converse.

‘What now?’ Spleen urged.

The Doctor took hold of his Follow-Me bot, patting it affectionately before he reached for the override switch. The bot beeped, and deactivated. He quickly got down to sit cross-legged, upturning the bot and prising open the casing with his fingernails. He fiddled with the electronics for a moment, before refixing the casing and reactivating it. The Follow-Me bot immediately jumped up to hover in the air, turned and streaked straight to the door. The Doctor only just got to the switch in time, hitting it to enable the bot to streak out of the room and straight into the crowd of droids.

The effect was instantaneous. The droids registered the Follow-Me’s presence, beeping out alerts as for a moment they all just stood there, confused. The Follow-Me then abruptly turned and headed straight towards the lift on the left. All of the droids immediately beeped frenziedly and rushed towards it. 

The Doctor grabbed Jack’s arm and pulled him, running out of the possession room and to the right towards the entrance of the prison. Spleen and Todran followed as they emerged into another corridor, the door closing behind them.

‘How much longer?’ Spleen wanted to know.

‘Two more doors, Master Jack,’ the Doctor announced.

Jack nodded. ‘Good. Keep going.’

He led them through the corridor to the next door, opening it. The door rolled back, immediately revealing a sentry standing one metre from them, facing away. The Doctor dived to the side immediately with Spleen and Jack following him, but Todran remained standing in the corridor, stunned ...

The Doctor tried to grab him, but it was too late as the sentry turned and the sirens almost immediately began to wail.

_ ‘Alert! Alert! Four escaped prisoners in section two!’ _

The sentry raised its gun arm. The Doctor dived under the gun arm immediately, climbing the sentry twice the size he was to get to the head. He managed to get to the back of the sentry’s head and pull off the casing before the sentry swivelled its midriff, caught the Doctor’s legs with his gun and sent him back to the floor. The gun took aim.

Jack and Spleen however, were already in action. They grabbed onto the gun together, pulling it away from the Doctor. The Time Lord jumped to his feet and climbed the sentry again, throwing his hand inside the electronics of the sentry’s head, gripping the wires and yanking with all of his might. The wires ripped out, and the sentry powered down.

‘Idiot!’ Spleen snapped at Todran.

‘I’m sorry!’ Todran cried.

Jack looked urgently at the Doctor as the sirens continued to wail. The Doctor nodded and immediately sprinted for the last door. There was no time for stealth now. The droids were coming – he could hear them just a few corridors away.

The last door opened, and suddenly they were outside. There were no droids out here. The only ship docked was Leya’s, and the force field was only ten metres from where they were standing. Beyond it, some horrible-looking creatures lingered, waiting patiently for them to exit the forcefield. 

The Doctor looked at Jack. The immortal man had obviously realised what the Doctor had known all along – now they were escaping when there wasn’t a prisoner intake, they were going to have to run across the barren, parasite-filled wasteland for 500 metres to get to the distant airship.

‘Master Jack, we need to run,’ the Doctor told him.

_ This isn’t happenin’, this isn’t happenin’ ... _

Jack nodded. ‘Got it.’

‘What?’ Todran gasped.

‘What!?’ Spleen cried. ‘What kind of plan is that?’

‘It’s the only plan,’ Jack snapped. ‘Go back if you want.’

Todran fell silent and Spleen harrumphed, but there was no time to moan about it as the droids came around the corner, firing.

‘Go!’ the Doctor cried, and began to run. 

He reached 100 metres before he looked back, where Jack, Todran and Spleen were running with bright red faces. He looked beyond them to New Shada, but noticed that the droids weren’t following them. He knew why. They expected them to die.

He looked forward and sped up, Rose screaming at him inside his head. Suddenly the ground erupted from under his feet and he was sent flying, Rose shrieking before he hit the sandy ground, rolling slightly before jumping to his feet. A huge worm had burst out of the ground, its huge, sharp and numerous teeth narrowly missing him. But Jack, Todran and Spleen were in the danger zone.

‘Split!’ the Doctor yelled. They all obeyed, scattering in several directions as the worm plunged back into the ground, only just missing Jack.

The Doctor turned and kept running, just as the worm burst out of the ground exactly where he’d been standing two seconds previously. He wasn’t going to outrun it, so he began to wind across the terrain back and forth, hoping to outmanoeuvre the worm. After a few moments he was sure he had confused the worm enough, so he quickly ran to catch up with the others.

But they had already encountered another problem. A nest of flying insects from the blood-red plants were attacking Jack, Todran, and Spleen, latching onto their skins and commencing – what the Doctor could only assume to be – sucking out their blood.

There was nothing he could do but run straight into the fray. Several of the insects latched onto him – two on his neck, one on his hand, and another on his face. He smacked the insects with his palms to kill them, but as soon as they were dead they were replaced by others almost immediately. By the time he and his group were out the other side he was covered in them; his blood being sucked out at an astonishing rate.

It was 400 metres before he managed to get them all off, but he could see the others had considerably weakened from the amount of blood taken. But there was barely any time to think about this as clearly the droids had decided that they had better pursue them, and shots were flying around them like sideways rain. The ground was exploding, revealing the horrors of the creatures underneath that they had to skip around.

The air was becoming less and less as they ran – the air filters in New Shada did not extend this far. It was becoming harder to breathe, and around him he could hear his companions gasping.

He switched to his respiratory bypass, but the others didn’t have that benefit. Jack appeared to be running on adrenaline, but Spleen and Todran were slowing down …

Fifty metres to go. The worm had disappeared, but the insects were still pursuing them. The insects were fast approaching Spleen from behind.

Forty. The Doctor had to stumble to avoid something else coming out of the ground – he’d only caught a glimpse, but it had looked like an overgrown rat with blood red eyes.

Thirty. The insects were all over Spleen, who was shrieking. The droids were getting closer, and increasingly more accurate.

Twenty. The ground erupted beneath the Doctor’s feet again, but this time he couldn’t avoid it. He felt a sharp, stinging pain in his leg and looked down to see a rat attached to his leg by its teeth. Rose screamed inside his head as Jack, running behind him, dived mid-run to grab the rat, wrenching it from the Doctor’s leg and hurling it behind him where the grateful insects finally moved off of Spleen and to the rat, blocking off the view of the droids.

Ten. The ground burst open again from behind the Doctor. He looked back, just in time to see Todran disappear. He stopped, Jack and Spleen nearly running into him.

‘Move!’ Spleen shrieked, but the Doctor couldn’t. The worm ripped out of the ground again, and the Doctor could see Todran in its terrible jaws, the worm making a grotesque munching sound.

The last the Doctor saw of Todran was his wide-eyed, terrified expression as he screamed the Doctor’s name. Seconds later the worm bit clean through the silurian, blood erupting out of its mouth before it plunged down into the earth again. There was nothing the Doctor could do as the ground beneath the worm was suddenly soaked in blood. He could only hope Todran was dead now. 

They made it to the ship, and the droids had finally got through the insects with shots flying once more. The Doctor unlocked the ship with his fingerprint and they all fell inside the airlock, which rapidly decompressed. By the time the Doctor had run into the cockpit and fired up the engines the droids were already trying to break the door down. He skipped all the safety protocols, fired the auxiliaries, and they lifted off. He used every modicum of power he could without overloading the engine, and the ship immediately sped away, breaking the atmosphere and out into space.

He kept going for a minute or two, just to be sure that they were clear of the scanners. Then he stopped, masking their location before the tiredness of using his respiratory bypass became apparent and he turned and he headed back onto the deck. Spleen was gasping for air on the floor and Jack was sitting on a chair, wide-eyed. Everyone was covered in sand, and angry red welts from the insects, although Jack was quickly healing. 

_ Oh my god. _

Jack simply looked down at the Doctor’s leg. The Time Lord followed his gaze, and realised for the first time that the back of his leg was bloody. The pain hit two seconds afterwards and he grunted, dropping to the floor. Jack finally got up, retrieving a green moon medical kit hanging on the wall and kneeling beside the Doctor, popping it open.

‘Stupid little k’ashing silurian got what he deserved,’ Spleen grated.

The Doctor and Jack exchanged a look. The Doctor could say nothing, of course.

‘Yeah, fucking idiot silurian,’ Jack muttered, but in no way meant it as he carefully cleaned and bandaged the bloody gouge in his best friend’s leg.


	15. S is for Someone Always Dies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah enacts her plan to stop the spiders, with disastrous consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extract is from Paroxysmic, the second in this series. Leah's only two there. How time flies! :o

Leah found the nest. Most of the spiders were out hunting, so it wasn’t too hard to navigate around the edges, occasionally blasting her Rastinate as any spiders that happened to roam her way, finding herself less and less scared as she advanced. She soon reached what could’ve only been their food storage, or larder – a huge cavern with hundreds of pods hanging from the ceiling. This was where most of the cries were coming from. All the people were trapped inside them.

‘Uncle Brax?’ she dared to whisper, walking among the pods nervously. The cries immediately increased in volume. ‘No! Shush!’ she urged, but none of them cared.

‘Leah!’ she finally heard. It was Uncle Brax. She followed his voice to a pod in the corner. She tested the material, but it was like steel. So she brought out the sonic screwdriver, adjusted the setting, and ran it down the pod.

It took a few attempts, but eventually the pod material split and Uncle Brax all but fell out, only just about avoiding his niece. He gasped in air, turning over to lie on his back, staring up at her. ‘What’s happened?’ he choked out.

‘The spiders are taking everyone,’ she whispered. ‘We made Rastinate, but they took Alex and Auntie Gwen and Uncle Ianto …’

Brax sat up immediately. ‘All of them? And Alex? He’s here?’

Leah nodded. ‘Yeah …’

‘No, no, no …’ Uncle Brax muttered, scrambling to his feet. ‘Look for them!’

Leah moved immediately around the pods, calling out for her brother in Gallifreyan. It was Uncle Brax who found him in a tiny pod, yelling Leah over to use the sonic screwdriver. Seconds later her little brother was revealed, Uncle Brax catching him as he fell out of the pod.

‘Alex?’ Uncle Brax asked, pushing the boy’s unruly brown hair from his eyes. ‘Alex!’

Alex blinked open his eyes, made a squeaking noise and abruptly sneezed, the remaining cobwebs flying off of his face. He then looked up at his uncle, wide-eyed.

‘Shikla?’ Uncle Brax asked.

Alex nodded, pulling out of Brax’s hands and shaking himself off, running his little hands through his hair to try and get more cobwebs out.

Uncle Brax nodded, picking the last of the webs off of his nephew. ‘We need to kill these things and get out,’ he announced.

Leah pulled out an aerosol can and a smoke bomb, handing them to her Uncle before looking around at the other pods. ‘What do we do with these people? What about Uncle Ianto and Auntie Gwen?’

‘If we release these people there’ll be chaos,’ Uncle Brax muttered. ‘We need to kill the spiders and come back …’ He paused momentarily, looking around the pods. ‘Gwen? Ianto?’

They waited, listening. They couldn’t hear them through the cries for help, and most of the remaining pods were the same size. There was very little chance of finding them without releasing crowds of panicked people into the nest.

‘Okay,’ Uncle Brax continued. ‘We’ll find them later. Let’s kill these spiders.’

* * *

Uncle Brax, Leah and Alex headed towards the nest where the queen was sitting. As they neared, it became increasingly more difficult to progress as more spiders were running around, but they managed to get to the central area without too much Rastinate being used.

They ended up crouching in a tunnel directly behind the queen. Leah regarded the situation, the thousands of spiders running around the chamber. In front of them was one of the queen’s legs about half a metre wide, occasionally flexing as various little spiders travelled back and forth up it.

‘We’ve gotta go for the queen,’ Leah whispered.

‘I will do that,’ Uncle Brax said, readying his smoke bomb.

Leah swallowed nervously, quickly realising what had to be done. ‘You can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘You’re too heavy.’

Uncle Brax looked at her. ‘No.’

‘I’m light, the queen’ll think I’m a spider, but she’ll feel you,’ Leah pointed out.

Uncle Brax swallowed, clearly nervous. ‘Leah … Let me do this.’

‘You’ll die,’ Leah told him straight. ‘I’ve got a chance.’

‘I can’t just sit here …’

‘You won’t be, you’re gonna distract,’ she said, pointing across the room. ‘Go over there and do a smoke bomb to make the spiders panic, then I can climb up and kill the queen. Mmmkay?’

Uncle Brax looked as though he’d been shot. ‘This isn’t … I can’t let you.’

‘It’s the only way and you know it, cos she’ll kill you, and I won’t let Alex do it,’ she said, taking her little brother’s hand reassuringly.

Uncle Brax sighed. He clearly knew she was right. ‘Okay,’ he muttered, and reached to his nephew’s head. ‘I need to block off the bond again.’

Leah nodded, Uncle Brax obediently cutting off Alex’s link to his father. ‘Alex, you’re with me,’ he told the boy. Alex nodded. 

Leah quickly hugged her little brother. ‘Just hide,’ she instructed him. Alex nodded again.

Uncle Brax hugged her next, with far more warmth than Leah had become accustomed to with him. ‘Please,  _ please  _ don’t be foolish,’ he begged the girl. ‘Everyone is going to be fine.’

Leah nodded, though with far more conviction than she felt. He simply smiled at her, took her little brother’s hand and led him around the tunnels to the other side. 

She waited patiently, suddenly feeling tremendously scared. She knew what she had to do. Go up the spider’s leg, place a Rastinate bomb on its head and run. It all seemed so simple in her head, but actually doing it was another matter. Looking at the spider now, its legs seemed so thin. Its fangs were so big. It was twitchy, too. Maybe she’d fall off. Maybe she’d be spotted and she’d be covered in loads of spiders in seconds and she’d die. And her daddy wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t know at all until Uncle Brax told him.

Not for the first time, she wished her daddy was with her.

* * *

_ ‘Daddy,’ she moaned. _

_ ‘What?’ he asked quickly, anxiously. ‘Is he here?’ _

_ She looked up for a moment, then shook her head and moved to hold him a little tighter. ‘Can I ... Can I go home now please?’ _

_ ‘... Why do you want to go home? I thought you wanted to stay and help?’ _

_ She sniffed again, her eyes watering. ‘I scared, Daddy.’ _

_ He reached out and squeezed her hand a little to reassure her. His hand was so big, comfortable and protective like a cocoon. ‘It's normal to be scared, and being scared doesn't make you a coward or incapable. Being brave isn't about not feeling scared, it's about being absolutely terrified but doing what you have to do anyway.’ _

_ 'Little Leah frowned. That wasn’t right. 'You're not ever scared,' she told him quietly, looking away. _

_ ‘Hey, look at me,’ he said and she looked back, her eyes still watering. He offered a smile. ‘The truth is, I'm constantly scared. All day, every day. I'm scared of the monsters, I'm scared of their weapons and I'm scared I'll fail one day. I'm scared for you and your Mummy so much, because at any moment ... things could go wrong. I know that. And I'm absolutely terrified of it. But I do what I do because no one else will. I think you understand that, don't you?’ _

_ She nodded again. _

_ ‘I know you can do this, because you're so beautiful, so brave, so intelligent ... you're my daughter. I love you so much. This is dangerous, you know that, and I know that. You could get hurt doing it, and believe me ... That little fact is screaming at me. Because if you ever got hurt ... I'd cry so hard. You're my little girl, but you're growing up so fast and it's time I stepped back. I trust you, I really do. I know you're ready for this. What d'you say?’ _

_ Leah swallowed, looking at him again. He always made her feel better. And she didn’t want to let him down. '... Okay,' she finally answered. _

_ 'Are you sure?' _

_ 'Yes,' she said, before giving him a little smile. 'I fix this, no worry.' _

_ 'I will worry,’ her daddy confessed, ‘but I know you'll prove me wrong.' _

* * *

‘I’ll fix it, don’t worry,’ Leah muttered to herself, clutching onto her smoke bomb in her sweaty palm. ‘I’ll fix it, don’t worry. I’ll fix it, don’t worry.’

Suddenly there was the hiss of a deployed smoke bomb. It had started. For a moment she just stood there, paralysed, until suddenly she was running without even telling her feet to move. She burst out of her hiding place, running through the gap in the rocks, up a small hill where she leapt for the queen’s leg. The leg twitched as Leah gripped it with every ounce of strength she had. The spiders began to scatter away from the Rastinate Uncle Brax had deployed, several dropping dead on the spot. But Leah wasn’t paying attention to that. She was climbing with her hands and feet, up the giant leg. The leg twitched again. She looked up, but the spider’s head wasn’t in her direction. It was focusing on Uncle Brax and Alex. So she kept going, kept climbing up. In ten seconds she reached the head, and planted her bomb in amongst the spider’s fur, setting it to detonate.

Finally, the queen realised something was amiss. Its head swivelled, nearly sending Leah and the bomb flying but she managed to stay put, holding desperately onto its fur. Below her she could see her Uncle and brother, running around trying to avoid the queen’s legs which were snatching at them; trying to grab them.

But she had to get off, and she hadn’t thought this far ahead.

Suddenly she was grabbed around the waist. She shrieked, looking down to realise a long hairy leg was wrapped around her midriff, getting tighter every second …

‘Leah!’ she heard her Uncle cry, panicked. Leah increased the pitch of her scream, utterly terrified as the queen tried to crush her, the bomb only metres away and ticking down to detonation. She struggled desperately, trying to writhe out of the queen’s leg, but it wasn’t working. She tried to get the sonic screwdriver from her pocket, but she was only able to get a weak grip before the queen jolted her and the sonic dropped, down from her pocket and into the mud below.

‘Leah!’ Alex. She looked down, her vision blurring, but she could make out her little two-year-old brother running under the queen. Uncle Brax was crying out for him too now, but he didn’t seem to care. He grabbed the sonic screwdriver, fumbling momentarily before raising it and blasting the queen with sonic waves. 

The queen shrieked and dropped Leah directly into a pile of dead spiders. Leah screamed again, untangling herself from the legs and getting up just in time to see her little brother be assailed by another spider.

She ran forward, the Rastinate aerosol back in her hand. She continually squeezed the trigger, spraying the deadly compound directly at the spider on her little brother. It shrieked and died. Something grabbed her. She yelled and struggled, but quickly realised it was her uncle. He scooped her and Alex off of the ground and dived behind a rock, covering them both. Leah closed her eyes and reached out for her brother impulsively, holding his head to her to protect him.

The bomb hissed out its gas, and then promptly exploded. Pieces of the queen hit the wall above them as pale blue-green hemolymph from the spider splattered across the inside of the cavern, until, briefly, there was silence. Uncle Brax peered over the rock, Leah shortly following. The queen was in pieces, and the spiders that remained were still running around in a frenzy as the Rastinate began to clear. Uncle Brax quickly deployed another smoke bomb into the middle of the group. A few escaped in time, but most were smothered in the Rastinate and died immediately, others dying in the explosion, with their long legs curling up.

Suddenly there was a deep, reverberating crack. Leah looked up, and realised that the mud walls and ceiling were collapsing in ...

‘Run!’ Uncle Brax cried, gripping his niece and nephew’s hands to pull them up to run. So they did, following their Uncle as he charged to the exit that led to the spiders’ larder. It completely collapsed as soon as they were out, and the rest of the tunnels were beginning to collapse too.

They made it to the larder with a few precision squirts of Rastinate against spiders who were still trying to round them up despite the situation. Leah got to work immediately, sonicking the cocoons as fast as she could to free the terrified villagers. Panic ensued, but Uncle Brax bellowed for calm and quickly got them all into order.

‘Don’t panic, don’t scatter, just follow me!’ Uncle Brax shouted, and ran out of the larder as the last of them were freed, Auntie Gwen and Ianto included. They were both bewildered and disorientated, but quickly assumed commanding roles and ushered out the terrified villagers in pursuit of Brax. ‘Leah! Alex! Out with me!  _ Now! _ ’ was Brax’s last call. Leah took Alex’s hand and ran with him seconds before the entire larder fell in a heap of mud, stones and sticks.

Alex’s little legs couldn’t go too fast so she was half-dragging him through the dirt. Almost immediately a crowd of spiders were on their tail. Leah quickly blasted some more Rastinate behind them as they reached the exit point where Uncle Brax was reaching into the hole, desperate to get them. Leah pushed Alex up to Uncle Brax, who lifted the boy and pulled him up one-handed as she turned back and blasted some more Rastinate in the pursuing spiders’ faces. Then Uncle Brax got hold of her, yanking her out of the tunnel as she dispensed her last rastinate smoke bomb.

Collectively she, Uncle Brax, Alex, Auntie Gwen, Uncle Ianto and the last of the villagers got up, and  _ ran.  _ Seconds later, the ground hissed, and then exploded in a shower of mud and grass.

They were all thrown off of their feet, but within seconds Uncle Brax was already screaming for them to get up again. Leah quickly realised that the ground they were standing on was falling beneath their feet as the tunnel system collapsed in on itself. Leah hauled her brother up again, dragging him once more. They kept going, kept running, until finally Uncle Brax called them all to a halt and they stopped, gasping for air. Leah turned back to where the spiders’ nest had been, and all that remained was a massive muddy crater filled with dead spiders half in and half-out of the dirt. There was no sign of life.

‘Everyone okay!?’ Uncle Brax asked quickly. Everyone nodded affirmation, just trying to get their breath back. He then smiled, turning to Leah. ‘You did it. I’m so proud of you.’

Finally, all of the fear and tension that had been inside the four-year-old gallifreyan released, converting into pure relief. She giggled, and ran forward to hug him around the waist. So he wasn’t her Daddy, but he’d do for now, she decided.

‘Leah!’ a bellow came from afar. It was Hunfrid, bounding towards them. The ground was shaking with his steps.

‘Did everyone get out? All the villagers?’ Leah asked anxiously as he reached them.

Hunfrid nodded. ‘They did. Thank you, sincerely. Your father would be so proud.’

Leah beamed.

‘Brax!’ Auntie Gwen suddenly shouted in alarm. Both Leah and her uncle looked to her – and immediately registered Alex lying on the ground, wheezing.

Uncle Brax realised immediately, running to the boy. ‘Alex!’ he called, crashing down on his knees next to him. He didn’t respond, just lying there with his eyes closed.

‘Alex!’ Leah cried, running to her little brother. ‘Holl’gero!’

Uncle Brax shook him slightly, but he didn’t respond. He checked his pulse next.

‘He’s beating, it’s rapid but it’s there …’ Uncle Brax muttered, and searched the boy’s body. It quickly became apparent what the problem was as Brax carefully turned him over and saw a puncture wound to the back of the boy’s leg. Then he realised. ‘No. No. No.’

‘What?’ Leah asked anxiously. ‘What happened? Uncle Brax!?’

‘He’s been bitten,’ Uncle Brax grunted, and without another word he scooped up the boy and began to run back to the TARDIS. For a moment Leah could only stand there, utterly paralysed. Her father had said the bite of a creipian spider was highly poisonous to construct six lifeforms and below. Time Lords and Gallifreyans alike were construct seven, but Alex was a weak, sickly boy ...

‘Alex,’ she moaned, seeking out her Auntie’s hand. Auntie Gwen obligingly took it as Uncle Ianto knelt down to hug her.

‘He’ll be okay,’ Uncle Ianto insisted. 

‘It’s my fault, it’s my fault, he came to save me,’ Leah whined, sobbing.

‘Of course it’s not your fault, don’t be silly. And Brax knows what to do, he’ll be okay,’ Auntie Gwen said, but not for the first time, the words of the adults weren’t reassuring Leah. She knew far more than they did.

She’d killed her little brother because she’d wanted to have some stupid adventure.

‘Why must someone always die?’ Hunfrid asked suddenly, quietly, to no one in particular.

No one could reply. In the end, Auntie Gwen simply thanked the giant for his hospitality, and took Leah’s hand. Covered in mud, spider blood and tears, the little girl was led back to the TARDIS, utterly distraught.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shikla? - OK?  
> Holl’gero! - Say something!


	16. Controlling a Time Lord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose’s presence inside the Doctor’s head begins to cause him physical issues. Alex’s condition worsens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight dab of smut at the start. Consider yourself warned! :D

_ She saw her alien, sitting on his favourite chair in the library - glasses on - deeply engrossed in a book as he usually was on a Sunday. She briefly looked at the cover – something spacey and intelligent, she realised. She couldn’t even begin to understand the title of it. _

_ He looked so relaxed and absorbed by his book, with his incredible brain undoubtedly whirring with a million clever thoughts that would eventually lead to some logical breakthrough that would benefit creation in some shape or form. And she was about to interrupt him. _

_ Oh well, she decided. She moved forward, neatly straddling him. He looked up, surprised. _

_ ‘Busy?’ she asked. _

_ ‘Apparently not,’ he mused as she removed his glasses, plucked the book out of his hands and dropped it onto the floor. She then leaned forward, kissing him gently with her arms linked around his neck. _

_ It continued for a few minutes, as it always did. She worked around his mouth, making sure to get every last bit of him. She’d not kissed anyone quite like the Time Lord. His mouth had a distinct flavour that ever since they’d been bonded she couldn’t get enough of. She supposed it was the bond doing that. _

_ After the few minutes she finally drew back, cupping his face in both of her hands. ‘I love you,’ she told him. _

_ ‘Likewise,’ he assured her, slightly out of breath. _

_ She ran her hands through his hair, her finger sliding through his perfect brown locks. They smelt like strawberries. _

_ ‘Have you been usin’ my shampoo?’ she asked, giggling a little. _

_ ‘Maybe,’ he replied, guilty. _

_ She laughed and pulled back to look at him, regarding him as Adonis. He was to her anyway. Maybe he was a little bit on the skinny side and a bit pale compared to Adonis, but she had grown to love his lanky and pasty nature. Every bit of him, she decided, was perfect. _

_ She suddenly felt a compulsion to lean forward and lick his cheek. He looked a little disconcerted but played along as she simultaneously reached down to his trousers. He didn’t have much of a sex drive either, so there was always a hint of bewilderment whenever she did it, but she found that quite funny. Besides, he was learning.  _

_ So without a further thought, she reached down and unbuttoned his trousers. She coaxed him to move enough for her to pull them and his boxers down, before pulling down her own clothes. There was that bewildered look on his face again, like he was trying to work out the most logical action to take now. So she did the groundwork for him until he was ready, and eventually they connected. _

_ Then they moved in perfect rhythm. He was groaning. She suddenly realised that his groaning wasn’t out of pleasure. It was pure pain. _

_ ‘Get off,’ he moaned. ‘Get off.’ _

_ ‘What? Why?’ _

_ ‘Get off …’ _

_ She tried to, but for some reason she couldn’t stop. ‘I can’t …’ _

_ Then suddenly he was bleeding, from his nose, his eyes, his ears and his mouth. It seemed to get heavier with every movement they made. Then he was crying. _

_ ‘No, stop,’ he choked out through a mouth of blood and tears. ‘Please …’ _

_ ‘I can’t!’ _

_ She watched, horrified as suddenly his perfect face was falling apart in front of her. His eyes were melting, his hair was falling out, his skin was peeling off and his muscles turning to soup ... _

_ ‘Please stop!’ he cried. _

_ ‘I can’t!’  _

_ ‘STOP!’ _

_ ‘I can’t!!!’ _

* * *

The Doctor woke up with an abrupt jerk, gasping for air. 

_ Oh my god! _

‘You saw that?’ the Doctor asked, gripping onto the side of the bed, white knuckled.

_ Yeah! What the hell was it? _

‘Just a dream,’ the Doctor said quickly, checking the room for anyone else but he was alone. ‘It was a dream …’

He suddenly felt something warm on his face. He reached up to wipe under his nose, and saw blood on his fingers. He had a nosebleed.

_ Oh my god. You’re bleeding. Like the dream. I'm destroying your head, aren’t I? That’s what that dream was about! You’re gonna fall apart like in the dream! _

‘I don’t think that’s even physically possible,’ the Doctor reasoned. ‘It was just a dream.’

_ But you're bleeding! _

‘It's just a nosebleed. People get nosebleeds all the time.’

_ You don’t! _

‘It's fine.’

_ No, it’s not! _

He got to his feet, limping to the toilet to check himself in the mirror. Apart from the blood under his nose, he looked fine.

_ Oh god, we’ve gotta get me out now. I’m killing you. _

The Doctor damped his fingers and began to wipe away the blood. At least the nosebleed had stopped. ‘It’s probably just an after-effect of regeneration,’ he lied.

_ You’re lying. _

He sighed. ‘Okay, it’s not,’ he admitted. ‘But we’re on the way to Sirrus. We’ll sort it out.’

_ Okay. Just be quick, yeah? _

He nodded into the mirror. He knew she was right. If the blood was from his brain, then it was an indication his brain couldn’t cope with a second consciousness inside it and was starting to break down. He had to get her out as soon as possible.

He was so glad she couldn't read his thoughts.

* * *

Brax had taken the comatose Alex straight to the TARDIS infirmary, attaching him to menagerie of machines, which constituted life support. Martha had helped, even though her baby was now long overdue. Brad had tried to comfort his niece, but he wasn’t very good at empathy. So he’d just watched as she sobbed relentlessly, hugging her gran tightly, before retrieving her brother’s toys and reading to him from his favourite books.

There was a distinct air of resignation from everyone who visited the infirmary. They all seemed to sense the boy was going to die. Even Leah, the four-year-old with a bright, positive perception of the universe had no hope for him. She blamed herself, but Brax blamed himself even more. His brother’s son was dying and there was very little he could do about it. He had been their guardian. Theta had trusted him for the first time since he was a tot. The first time he's trusted him since he’d left his plant in Braxiatel’s care and the older brother accidentally forgotten to water it. Now one of Theta’s children was about to die. He’d let him down again, but this time it wasn’t a plant. It was much  _ much _ more important than that. It was his son.

As Leah and Jack fell asleep in the chair next to Alex’s bed, Braxiatel went to the library. He went to the furthest corner to make sure he couldn’t be overheard, took a deep breath, and activated the chip in his palm.

‘Jack,’ he muttered.

_ ‘What?’  _ came the reply almost immediately.

His mouth was dry, but he managed to speak, ‘May I talk to Theta and Rose, please?’

There was a brief silence.  _ ‘What have you done?’ _

‘Please let me talk to them.’

_ ‘What’s happened to Leah?’  _ Jack grated.

‘She’s okay,’ Brax replied quietly. ‘Please, I need to talk to them.’

_ ‘Tell me why.’ _

Brax sighed, closing his eyes briefly. ‘It’s Alex.’

_ ‘... What?’ _

‘He’s … he’s been poisoned.’

_ ‘What!? How!?’ _

Brax could feel he was about to cry. He never cried. ‘He was bitten by a creipian spider. He was … He saved his sister.’

_ ‘They were in danger!?’ _

‘I couldn’t stop them ... ‘

_ ‘Are you serious!? You couldn’t STOP them!? They’re two and four!’ _

‘I’m s-sorry,’ Brax choked out. He couldn’t stop the tears now. ‘Please, I n-need to tell them. I d-don’t think Alex has long … And h-he won’t be able to regenerate … He’s too young … Too weak. I can’t … I can’t stop the p-poison. Thete and Rose need to … they need to say good bye.’

The ensuing silence deafened Brax.  _ ‘No,’  _ Jack finally replied firmly.

‘... Pardon?’

_ ‘I’m not telling them, because you’re gonna fix this,’  _ Jack snapped in return. 

‘I can’t …’

_ ‘Start with an antidote.’ _

‘He’s too weak ...’

_ ‘Shut the hell up, he’s the strongest kid I know. Give him a damn chance, don’t just write him off. Get him the antidote and take him to hospital.’ _

‘But he’s a gallifreyan, they’ll …’

_ ‘Then find someone you trust! Over and out.’ _

* * *

Jack dropped his palm, thoroughly riled. He took a deep breath, steeling himself and checking for Spleen before stepping through the door into the sleeping quarters where the Doctor had gone to sleep off his respiratory bypass.

He saw the Doctor in the bathroom, staring at the mirror. Immediately his heart sank at the sight of him. No doubt Brax had blocked off the bond so the Doctor couldn’t feel anything wrong. Maybe Jack should tell him and Rose. Maybe Brax was right. Maybe there was nothing that could save the boy and the Doctor and Rose needed to say goodbye before he died.

He stepped forward to approach the Time Lord, and saw a smear of red under his nose. The Doctor was trying to clean it off.

‘You’re bleeding,’ Jack realised.

The Doctor looked up at Jack, surprised. ‘Just a nosebleed,’ he said, tugging at his ear. 

Immediately Jack knew he was lying. He didn’t get nosebleeds. There was only one rational reason for him to be haemorrhaging from his nose and for him to be lying about it. Keeping Rose in his head for so long was starting to have an effect. Now it would only get worse.

Alex flashed across Jack’s brain again. Telling the Doctor would completely jeopardise the plan, he realised. The Doctor would become completely manic if he knew about Alex, and that would put both him and Rose’s consciousness in severe danger when the Doctor halted their passage to Sirrus to get back to his son, especially when it was now starting to have a physical effect.

No, he wouldn’t tell him, Jack decided.

‘Spleen’s in the cockpit contacting his friends on Sirrus,’ Jack said, trying not to let his voice tremble. ‘Everything’s fine.’

He felt bad for not saying anything. He hoped to all the deities that Brax would be able to get Alex help. If the boy died, his parents wouldn’t know for a very long time, and then resent Jack for not telling them when it mattered; denying them the chance to goodbye to their only son.

The Doctor nodded. ‘We need to get there as soon as possible.’

‘We’re on max power.’

‘Good,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Any problems with Spleen?’

‘None,’ Jack replied, still gazing at him. He suddenly felt compelled to move forward, resting a hand on his best friend’s shoulder. 'Whatever happens, I'm here for you, okay?' he said, utterly seriously.

The Doctor looked at him strangely. 'Are you okay?'

Jack beamed. 'Fine!' He let go and stepped back. 'Just saying.’

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. ‘You’d better go and eavesdrop on Spleen.’

‘You won’t believe it,’ Spleen was saying into the comm. ‘It’s a human controlling a Time Lord …’

_ ‘You’re joking,’  _ his brother replied, astonished.

‘No, I’m serious. He’s doing whatever the human says.’

_ ‘That’s not possible...’ _

‘He’s calling him master and obeying him,’ Spleen explained. ‘The human said it was because the Time Lord went insane in Volag-Noc and now he’s relying on him.’

_ ‘Are they playing you?’ _

‘Who cares? You do realise on this ship I have that fulaking kreshka of a Time Lord waltzing around? Subservient or not, I can kill this stupid human and take this Time Lord for our family. Imagine how much we’d be feared if we had a Time Lord!’

_ ‘What’s the plan, then?’ _

‘We dock, and you be ready with the family to take the Time Lord. Make sure you're all prepared. We can't underestimate him.’

_ ‘Okay.’ _

The door of the cockpit suddenly slid open. Spleen didn’t turn. ‘Thank you brother, we will be docking in fourteen hours.’ He hung up the comm unit, and finally turned to the human. 'Everything's ready.’

The human nodded. ‘Good.’

Spleen gazed at him. ‘Where’s the Time Lord?’

The human gestured behind him. ‘In the other room.’

‘So,’ Spleen began, leaning back in the chair, ‘how do you control the Time Lord?’

‘What?’

‘Everyone knows the Doctor,’ Spleen told him. ‘He’s a notorious radical free-thinker. Does what he wants when he wants and everyone else ends up paying the price. He can’t possibly be your slave. No offence, but humans aren’t exactly powerful.’

The human mused on that. ‘Have you ever been in solitary confinement?’

Spleen shook his head.

‘How about an elevator? Ever got stuck in an elevator?’

Spleen raised an eyebrow. ‘What’s this got to do with …’

‘Yes or no?’ the human prompted.

‘Once.’

‘Imagine being stuck in that elevator. You can’t get out, and no one wants to get in. Occasionally food drops. But that’s it. You can’t wash yourself. You have no visual or auditory stimulation but your own body. It’s cold, and dark, and you’re alone. You know what happens to people who don’t get stimulation? They think, and think, and keep thinking, until they can’t think normally anymore. Then they start hallucinating, imagining voices. Yeah, you can delay the insanity with singing, talking to yourself, or pain, but you can’t do much more than that. And just imagine you’re not there for a day, or a week ... but twelve years. Twelve years of nothing. And you know through all of it, that no one is coming to save you. That’s what happened to him.’

Spleen paused. ‘Oh,’ he murmured.

‘Time Lords are strong though, they were trained in the Time War in torture resistance,’ the human continued. ‘Occasionally he gets some of himself back but you give him a few whacks and you’re doing him a favour. It’s the need for pain with him. The need to feel something. That’s why he loves me.’

‘Loves?’ Spleen repeated disbelievingly.

‘He adores me,’ the human explained. ‘That’s why he doesn’t leave me.’

‘I see,’ Spleen mused. Maybe the human wasn’t lying. Maybe the most famous Time Lord in the universe really  _ was  _ completely compromised. Maybe, just maybe, he could replicate the situation with the Time Lord after the human was dead. 

He turned back to the controls, and made sure they were on the highest power.


	17. Antidote

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brax tries everything he can to save his nephew, while across space Spleen takes advantage of the Time Lord, forcing Jack to take action.

Brax thought for ten, long minutes. Then he walked to the console room. 

He activated the controls and setting off. As soon as the TARDIS were in motion Jackie was there, hands on her hips.

‘Where the ‘ell are you goin’?’ she wanted to know, annoyed. ‘You should be in the infirmary!’

‘Ugala Galactic Pharmacy,’ Brax responded, moving slowly around the console. ‘They’ll have the antidote.’

Jackie stared at him, at least until the TARDIS jolted and she had to grab onto a support strut to keep upright. ‘There’s a cure? You said he was dyin’ ...’

‘It’s not a cure,’ Brax stressed. ‘It’s just an antidote. It’s up to his body to overcome the effects.’

‘But …’ Jackie began, until she was interrupted by the TARDIS landing with quite a jolt. She quickly moved to him, grabbing his arm. ‘Why didn’t you do this straight away, eh?’

She was angry. Brax took a deep breath, before turning to her.

‘Alex is a very weak, sickly child. I don’t think he can be saved,’ he said honestly.

Jackie’s eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t you dare.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Don’t talk about ‘im like that,’ she spat.

‘I’m sorry, but he’s not going to survive this.’

Suddenly Jackie raised a hand and before Brax could even process it, she slapped him straight across the face. He reeled in alarm.

‘He’s your nephew!’ Jackie shrieked. ‘Don’t talk about ‘im like he’s already bloody dead!’

Brax stood there, stunned momentarily with a hand on his cheek, which was quickly turning red. Jackie visibly took a few deep breaths, clearly calming herself. 

‘You can’t do that,’ she continued. ‘You can’t say there’s an antidote and not believe in it. Either you don’t do anythin’ and he’s dead, or you do somethin’ and you’d better bloody believe it’s gonna work.’

He gazed at her. She was right, of course. Not that it changed his opinion. ‘I’m sorry,’ was all he responded.

‘Well if you don’t believe it, I do. You’re gonna save Alex or I’m gonna make sure my son-in-law knows you let my grandson die cos you didn’t believe in ‘im.’

‘It’s just the facts of the matter,’ Brax muttered, purposely shielding himself in case she slapped him again.

Jackie harrumphed. ‘That’s the problem with you aliens. You’re too busy being bloody logical. Do you ‘ave any ‘ope? Do you even  _ feel  _ it?’

‘It is not appropriate here.’

‘Oh, is that your excuse?’ Jackie snapped. ‘I guess humans are stupid cos we hope even when it’s not  _ appropriate!?’ _

He didn’t know what to say to that. So he just stood there, staring at her, speechless.

‘You’re gonna try and save ‘im cos you think he’ll survive, or you’re gonna let ‘im die. There’s no other option,’ Jackie grated, then abruptly turned and left the room before he could even begin to form an answer.

* * *

Jack’s talk with Spleen had worried him. Although the alien had seemed convinced of the Doctor’s subservience eventually, he had shown far too much interest in how Jack apparently controlled the Time Lord. He had expected it really. The thought of a subservient Time Lord was a bit more tempting than any high-class criminal could endure. He had to talk to the Doctor. 

The problem was, Spleen was now intent on learning more about the Time Lord – hanging around him. There was only one way, Jack realised, to get the Doctor on his own. And he wasn’t going to enjoy it.

Jack swallowed nervously, assumed the appropriate stance, and entered the deck. He saw Spleen across the room, staring at the Time Lord. Jack glared at the Doctor, who was sitting at the table eating.

‘Did I say you could eat!?’ Jack yelled angrily.

The Doctor looked up, realising immediately. He quickly pushed the food away. ‘Sorry, Master Jack.’

‘Get up.’

The Doctor didn’t move, just staring at him.

Jack’s eyes aflamed.  _ ‘Get. Up.’ _

The Doctor still didn’t move.

Jack launched forward to him, grabbing his arm and wrenching him to his feet. He then slammed the Doctor against the wall, with such ferocity the Doctor cried out. 

‘Is this how you want it!?’ Jack shouted in his face.

‘No, no, Master Jack, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…’

‘Sorry ain’t  _ fucking  _ good enough!’

‘Please don’t, Master Jack, please don’t …’

‘I don’t see any other way to get it into your thick skull!’ 

‘Please,’ the Doctor begged. This was way too real. Jack hated this.

‘If I hear one more word outta you then I’m gonna _rip_ you apart. Are you forgetting who saved you!?’ Jack screamed, hearing the Master in his own voice.

‘Please, Jack …’

Jack pretended to ignore him, casting a glance at Spleen. He winked at the draconian, and pushed the Doctor through the door to the toilet. He locked it behind him, turned, and immediately sagged.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ Jack whispered. 

‘It’s okay,’ the Doctor assured him.

‘Rose, I’m sorry.’

‘She says it’s fine,’ the Doctor replied quickly. 

‘No, no, fuck, no,’ Jack said quickly. ‘That was  _ way  _ too much like … you know.’

The Doctor just nodded to acknowledge that, and suddenly whacked the toilet with his fist, crying out.

‘What are you doing?’ Jack asked quickly, taking the Time Lord’s shoulder carefully.

‘He’s listening,’ the Doctor muttered, hitting the seat again and simultaneously shouting. ‘What did you want to talk about?’

‘It’s Spleen,’ Jack told the Doctor. 

‘What about him?’

‘He wants you. He’s going to try and take you when we land, I’m counting on it. He keeps asking about how I control you.’

The Doctor whacked the seat again. ‘No, please, Master Jack!’ he gasped out. ‘Don’t worry, take this.’ He reached inside his pocket and drew out a compact needle gun, handing it to Jack. ‘I was going to use this on myself in New Shada, but we can use it on him. When we land, dose him and we can get out.’

‘What is it?’

‘Just a barbiturate. He’ll get knocked out.’

He whacked the seat again, emitting a shriek that chilled Jack’s blood slightly.

‘Let’s not do this again,’ Jack said seriously, staring at him.

‘Sorry,’ the Doctor said, and this time whacked the seat three times, letting out the most harrowing scream. He then ruffled up his hair and loosened his clothes. He looked at Jack. ‘Be brave,’ he told him with a ghost of a smile. ‘We’re recon professionals.’

Jack couldn’t help but smile, pulling him into a hug. Then he let go as the Doctor stepped back, and pointed at his own face.

‘Hit me,’ he ordered Jack.

Jack flinched. ‘What?’ he asked dryly.

‘Hit me,’ the Doctor repeated.

‘But …’

‘C’mon.’

‘I don’t need to …’

‘We have to convince him I’m your slave,’ the Doctor insisted. ‘If he  _ is  _ planning to take me then we need to make him focus on you, not on me.’

Jack swallowed. He knew he was right. So Jack drew back a fist and hit him without much force. The Doctor fell back slightly, but not a lot.

‘Harder than that,’ the Doctor told him.

‘This is …’

‘Master Jack,  _ please don’t!’  _ the Doctor screamed.

‘Fuck,’ Jack swore, quickly psyching up before obediently punched him again, square in the jaw. This time the Doctor fell back, tripping over his own feet and hitting the toilet seat with quite a bang, ending up on the floor. It quickly became clear as he laid there that he’d knocked himself out on the way down.

Jack edged forward, whispering his name. He wasn’t responding. Internally cursing himself, he quickly checked there was no lasting damage before steeling himself and stepping out of the door, meeting Spleen who approached him immediately. 

‘Did you just …?’

Jack gave him a look, but that was all before he headed to the cockpit to check how long the appalling journey had remaining.

* * *

Spleen looked towards the direction of the toilet the human had abandoned. He could see the Time Lord’s foot sticking out beyond the door. He waited until Jack left and approached the room, where he saw the Doctor lying there on the floor looking decidedly dishevelled; unconscious.

‘Pathetic,’ Spleen muttered.

He moved to the Doctor, and just stood over him until he came to. He blinked, dazed, looking up at Spleen.

Spleen didn’t say anything. He simply knelt down and pressed a hand to the Time Lord’s chest, moving it over each heart. Definitely a gallifreyan, he mused, as the distinct thuds of two hearts beat against his hand. He fitted the description of the Doctor too. It had to be him.

He stood up again, the Doctor still on the floor. He then sharply kicked the helpless man in the side. The Doctor yelped, coughed and jolted. Spleen kicked him again. As the Time Lord cried out again, Spleen decided that he could get very used to this.

‘What the  _ fuck  _ are you doing!?’

Spleen turned to see the human striding towards him, absolutely furious.

‘What?’ he asked innocently, but the human didn’t stop walking. He grabbed Spleen around the neck, clutching tightly.

‘You don’t  _ touch him.  _ He’s  _ my  _ property,’ the human hissed.

H-hey,’ Spleen choked out. ‘I was just having fun!’

‘He’s not your fun to have,’ the human grated. ‘He’s mine, nobody else’s.’

Spleen quickly nodded, and the human finally let go. The human then moved to the Doctor, helping him up.

‘Okay?’ he asked.

‘Yes, Master Jack,’ the Doctor responded, slightly out of breath.

The human glared at Spleen. ‘Get out,’ he grunted.

Spleen rolled his eyes, and left.

* * *

Brax stepped into the Ugala Intergalactic Pharmacy, where several Ugalan lifeforms were buzzing around in their day-to-day business, with patients waiting in chairs. He already had his plan firmly in his mind. He had to get the antidote and get out. Not that he ever thought it would work. He couldn’t take Alex to a hospital, he would receive far too much attention, and due to Alex being a weak-hearted hybrid there were only two people in the universe who would be able to treat him with much confidence. Theta or Koschei.

He walked straight up to the counter to the receptionist, a tall Kiroian with tentacles. ‘Good morning,’ he said. ‘I would like an antidote to Creipian spider poison for an infant construct seven lifeform.’

‘Do you have a prescription?’

‘No.’

‘I’m afraid we can’t give out drugs without prescriptions,’ he said apologetically.

Brax internally winced. ‘I cannot move him, he’s too sick.’

‘We can put him straight into emergency care for passage to the Ugala hospital,’ the receptionist replied quickly.

Brax sighed a little. He wasn’t getting anywhere with this. ‘Okay,’ he said, and quickly went back into the TARDIS. He moved straight to the console and programmed her eight hours ahead. She landed, and he stepped out again.

It was dark, the pharmacy closed. Without hesitation he walked out to the staff access door to reception, and placed three very forceful, precise kicks to the bottom left of the frame. The door stuttered slightly, and eventually rolled open.

He stepped inside the reception, then moved to the pharmacy section. Luckily some employee had left their badge on the side, so he picked it up as he walked to the dispensing area. He ran the white pass card through the lock, and finally he was inside the medicine area.

He painstakingly searched along the shelves one by one until he found what he was looking for – a small packet of intravenous solution. He took a few packs just to be safe, before heading back to the TARDIS.

* * *

Jackie was by her grandson’s side when Brax appeared in the doorway. She stood up immediately, but said nothing as he walked to her and Alex with something in his hand. He simply retrieved the needle gun and attached the liquid to it, then administered it to the boy. Jackie watched as the liquid disappeared from the needle gun into Alex.

‘That’s it?’ she ended up asking.

‘It’s a start,’ he told her.

Jackie nodded. ‘What’ll you do next?’

Brax sighed, looking at her. ‘Alex is a weak-hearted gallifreyan human hybrid, he needs a hybrid specialist who is versed in gallifreyan biology and human biology. There are only two people I know of who are.’

‘Who?’

‘Theta, and Koschei; the Master.’

Jackie stared at him, wide-eyed. She wasn’t well-acquainted with the Master, but she had heard enough about him to know that would be a terrible idea. ‘Then find the Doctor,’ she said.

‘It’s not as easy as that,’ Brax muttered. 

‘You’ve got a time travel machine, dontcha? Go and find him! If you can’t find him now then go do your time thing and find him somewhere else!’

‘It’s very-’

‘Stop makin’ bloody  _ excuses!’  _ Jackie snapped. ‘It’s like you  _ want  _ him to die!’

Brax stiffened. ‘Don’t say that.’

‘Well right now it looks like it!’ Jackie shot back.

Thick silence hung in the air for a moment. ‘I’m sorry,’ Brax muttered.

‘Stop bloody saying sorry,’ Jackie grated. ‘I’m sick of it.’

Brax sighed heavily, looking at Alex, who was living entirely on life support.  He could find Theta. He could find him quite easily. Although it would break about 50,892 laws of time, he doubted anyone would be much inclined to care.

If Alex didn’t improve within twenty-four hours, he would have to find Theta, preferably somewhere in the future.


	18. Crash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a fight breaks out on board the ship, the group crash on Sirrus.

The Doctor had continued to purposely pile on his disobedience in an effort to get Jack to act more drastically. After a few hours, he’d managed to make Jack hit him three times, gag him and tie him with cables to a chair.

He could tell the immortal wasn’t taking it well. Every time the Doctor met his eyes Jack looked as though he was about to cry, unconsciously cradling the fist that had hit the Time Lord. But it was working – Spleen had a permanent smile plastered on his face. Even now, the draconian was across the room, pretending not to be looking at him. Inside his head, the Doctor knew, Spleen was thinking of ways he would use him. There would probably be a group of people ready to meet them when they landed, ready to kill Jack and take him to whatever fate Spleen had planned for him.

_ I hate this. _

He couldn’t reply to Rose, though she knew that.

_ I don’t want this. Stop it, please. _

Jack entered the deck from the cockpit. ‘Sirrus is one minute away.’ He looked at the Doctor. The sadness returned, but only briefly before he marched up to the Time Lord. He removed the gag, stooping to the Doctor’s height. ‘Gonna play nice?’ he asked the Time Lord.

‘Yes, Master Jack,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘I’m sorry, Master Jack.’

Jack reached around to release the cables holding him. The Doctor finally stood up on Jack’s cue, gazing at the immortal. 

‘Now stand in the corner with your hands on the wall, and don’t move,’ Jack told him. The Doctor obeyed, moving to the corner, facing the wall and placing his hands on it. He lowered his head and closed his eyes, just listening.

‘I’ll initiate the manual landing protocol,’ Jack said, and left into the cockpit. Then, silence. No, wait. Spleen was moving towards him. He was …

Suddenly something hit his head. The Doctor screamed out as pain exploded in the right side of his skull, his vision immediately whiting out as the pure shock of the impact temporarily blinded him. He must have blacked out, as seconds later he found himself lying on the floor, barely able to see with the sound of Jack shouting from somewhere in the ebbing distance. In instinct he tried to get up, but the pure shock seemed to have numbed his body and he found himself just lying there on the floor with a dark figure standing over him, his vision swerving in and out ...

_ Doctor! Doctor! _

He couldn’t answer her, as suddenly he realised Jack and Spleen were fighting, and the entire ship seemed to be pulsating with bright red light. Through his jumbled-up head he realised that with no one to pilot, the ship was now crashing.

_ We’re crashing! Doctor, get out! _

He blinked rapidly, struggling to focus. He had to get up. He blindly reached up for something to help him, managing to grip some sort of metal pipe. He staggered upright, finally managing to get some vision back before launching himself in the vague direction of the cockpit. He completely missed as suddenly the ship violently jolted, and began to nosedive. His body, helpless at the new angle, slid down to hit the wall separating the deck and the cockpit in a tangle of wires and loose cargo.

_ Jack! _

‘Jack!’ he cried, but one look in Jack’s direction told him all he needed to know as Jack and Spleen were entangled in a fierce brawl. So instead he forced himself up again, trying desperately to get to the cockpit. But behind him he heard Jack cry out, and suddenly a pair of draconian hands grabbed his shoulders and held him in place.

‘He’s dead, you’re coming with me!’ Spleen rasped, pushing the Time Lord through the door to the cockpit and consequently crashing onto the controls. The ship almost immediately did a flip and both him and Spleen ended up like loose change in a washing machine, the Doctor struggling to stay in place by holding one of the fixed chairs.

The Doctor caught a glimpse of the view out of the cockpit. They were heading straight towards solid ground. Spleen grabbed him again but he violently jerked away, desperately trying to reach the manual controls.

‘We’re going to crash!’ the Doctor yelled at the draconian, who was still trying to restrain him. 

‘I own you now!’

‘Let go!’ the Doctor yelled.

‘Jack’s dead! I killed him! You’re mine!’

‘We’ll all be dead in a minute!’ the Doctor cried. Finally Spleen managed to throw him off of the controls and onto the second pilot chair, where he promptly began to fasten him in.

Ejector seat, the Doctor realised before Spleen took the other seat. Before the Doctor could do anything, Spleen activated both ejector seats simultaneously

Sparks exploded from the Doctor’s left side as Spleen chair flew up through a newly-created gap in the roof. But his hadn’t. It had failed. He barely heard Spleen’s cry of rage fly away as suddenly he realised that the ship was about to crash into solid ground, nose first, and he was in the nose. He tried desperately to unlatch himself from the chair but the ejector automatics had completely sealed him into it without any give whatsoever.

_ Get it off! Get it off! _

The Doctor’s brain rushed for an alternative. He had just about enough reach to get a hand on the control wheel, but it was far too late to avert the impact. 

_ There’s a lake! Aim for the lake!!! _

Heeding her words he realised that there  _ was  _ a lake, just on the left. He turned the wheel so the ship was heading straight towards it.

_ Don’t panic! DON’T PANIC! _

The ship hit the water.

* * *

The Doctor jerked awake, finding himself sitting in the chair in the dark, dirty lake, still almost welded to it by the belts. His bypass had already activated. Above him was the ship in several pieces, the force of the impact against the highly viscous alien water managing to rip it apart. 

_ Thank god! Doctor, you gotta get free! _

His hand lethargically moved up to the straps where his fingers began to fumble, trying to find some sort of release catch. After a twenty long seconds he found the emergency release, and the straps fell away. Then he was taking strokes and kicking his legs, forcing his way up to the surface. The thick liquid was making it seem as though he was swimming through custard, and his coat was so heavy it was as though he was carrying another person on his back. He kept swimming, kept going, until somehow he finally broke the surface of the water. Bright light immediately assaulted his eyes as he forced his bypass to stay active – becoming weak at a time like this wouldn’t be smart.

_ Oh my god, Jack! _

The Doctor looked, and realised Jack was there, dead and face down in the water. He impulsively swam towards his friend, grabbing his arm before beginning to swim the the shore. But his body, although quite new, was beginning to ache, and his bypass was running out…

Finally, he reached the shore. He clambered through the mud and onto the bank, dragging Jack’s limp body with him. He checked his surroundings briefly – they were on a plain, and there was a village on the horizon. He couldn’t determine where Spleen had gone, but either way, they had to get away, and fast. They were sitting ducks.

He turned over to Jack, shaking him. Almost immediately Jack gasped, launching out an arm to grip the Doctor as he sat up, wide-eyed. Eventually his gaze locked onto the Time Lord.

‘We crashed?’ he asked breathlessly.

The Doctor nodded. ‘We need to move, I’m on my bypass. Once that runs out …’

‘I know,’ Jack interrupted, allowing the Doctor to help him to his feet. ‘Where’s Spleen?’

‘Could be dead, probably not,’ the Doctor replied. ‘He ejected before we crashed.’

Jack nodded again. ‘We’ve gotta find cover.’ He checked the sky. ‘Night’s on the way.’

* * *

After about a mile, the sun was setting and the Doctor was out of energy. Jack had to physically support him the rest of the way, and he found that his only option was to go to the village. At least they’d be in amongst some people and buildings and harder to find. No doubt Spleen would be after them, assuming he was still alive.

But as Jack moved closer, he realised the village was in fact completely empty. The houses were half-destroyed with their windows blown out, and peppered holes of gunfire decorated the walls. There was even a pile of bodies, gently rotting and swarmed by insects and rats. It stank of death. Clearly there had been a massacre here.

Jack finally located a shelter away from most of the dead bodies – an old, burnt out house. He had no choice but to stay there. It was going to get cold very quickly and he couldn’t carry the Doctor much further. He took the Doctor upstairs and settled him onto a partially-burnt bed. 

‘Doctor?’

The Doctor opened his eyes. ‘Yeah?’ he asked tiredly.

‘I’ll get some food for us and make a fire, then get you out of those clothes. Rose, keep him awake.’

The Doctor nodded absently. Clearly the repeated use of his bypass system in the past few weeks was taking its toll, not to mention the smack Spleen had given him. Jack left, severely hoping that he’d be able to find something for the Time Lord to eat and drink.

* * *

When Jack returned twenty minutes later, the sun had gone and it was bitingly cold. The Doctor was still there in exactly the same position on the bed. Jack put what he was carrying onto the floor, quickly moving to the Time Lord and shaking his shoulder. 

‘Doc,’ he prompted.

The Doctor opened his eyes immediately.

‘Good, stay awake,’ Jack said, making his indoor fire with the bits he’d found. He then moved to the Time Lord and started to get the wet clothes off, musing only slightly on how this seemed to be happening more frequently. He then got rid of his own clothes, and hung them up on some chairs by the fire to dry out.

Next he prepared the meat he’d acquired, cooking it on the fire, all the while talking to the Doctor and Rose to keep him awake. He then handed the cooked meat to the Doctor on a stick.

‘Just don’t expect me to tell you what it is,’ Jack said seriously. The Doctor gave him a look. ‘Relax,’ Jack continued, ‘it didn’t used to talk.’

The Doctor just ate as Jack boiled water from the lake and gave that to him too. He then tried his best to clean up the blood on both of them before the Doctor settled and promptly fell asleep.

Jack stayed up until the clothes were dry enough. When he redressed the Doctor, the Time Lord didn’t even stir. Then, as the fire died, Jack finally sat next to his best friend and pulled a blanket with frayed edges over them both, ready to keep watch.

This was it, he realised. Sirrus. Getting whatever food he could lay his hands on and making fire from nothing was all painfully familiar from his last stay on this grotty little planet. But at least, he mused as he looked at the Doctor, he had someone to keep him sane this time.

* * *

The Doctor was woken up by Jack roughly shaking him, almost immediately followed by a loud crash. 

_ Someone’s here! _

‘It’s gotta be Spleen!’ Jack said urgently.

‘Get up,’ the Doctor said, jumping to his feet. But before he could get much further suddenly the door burst open and several aliens flooded into the room, screaming at them with guns pointed in their direction.

The Doctor quickly checked for escape routes but he couldn’t even begin to process any before Spleen walked in. He looked at the Doctor with hunger, before looking at Jack and immediately losing his demeanour as he stumbled back, shocked.

‘B-but I killed you!’ Spleen stammered. ‘You’re dead!’

The Doctor and Jack glanced at each other, already knowing what the other was thinking. In half a second, they both ran for the window, and jumped before the aliens could realise that they had moved.

The Doctor hit the ten feet to the ground below, just about managing to keep his momentum with a roll, springing to his feet again. His leg, still damaged from the bite he’d received on New Shada, shot through with pain but he ignored it. Jack shortly followed, landing beside him. But as soon as they were up and running the Doctor heard a shot, followed by a cry, and then Jack fell to the floor. The Doctor had to shield himself to stop his best friend’s blood from coating his face.

In the half a second that followed, the Doctor realised that they weren’t going to escape. The only hope was that Spleen still believed he was subservient to Jack. So he stopped, turned, and called out for his master as the aliens spilled out of the house onto the street. A group of them ran up to him, grabbing him and throwing him face first to the floor, placing a boot on the back of his neck and a gun against his head.

‘He’s immortal!’ Spleen yelled as he appeared among the crowd, his eyes snapping to the Doctor. ‘He’s immortal, isn’t he!?’

_ Don’t tell him! _

The Doctor didn’t answer.

Spleen stormed over to him, ordering his henchmen to pull up the Doctor to his feet. 

‘Tell me!’ he demanded.

‘I only serve my master,’ the Doctor said calmly.

_ ‘I _ am your master now!’ Spleen yelled, and slapped him in the face.

_ You’ve gotta run! You can outrun ‘em! _

The Doctor glanced at Jack, still dead with blood pouring out of his head. Could he run? Spleen wouldn’t kill him; he wouldn’t risk it. But Jack. Could he just leave Jack? Besides, even if the Doctor managed to pull away from them, he had nowhere to run. There was no cover beyond this village, just open plains.

He bit his lip, and looked at Spleen. ‘I serve only Master Jack.’

Spleen glared at him. ‘You’ll learn soon,’ he grated, just as Jack gasped, reviving at the worst possible moment. Immediately he was pinned down.

‘Doctor!’ Jack cried, looking at the Time Lord.

‘Master Jack!’ the Doctor shouted back, and got another slap for it.

‘Leave him alone!’ Jack demanded, and Spleen kicked him hard in the side, spitting on him. Jack grunted.

‘You can forget your Time Lord, human,’ Spleen grated at Jack. ‘You can forget your freedom.’ He then turned to the Doctor, and signalled to his henchmen. One of them grabbed his hands and handcuffed him behind his back, another gagging him. ‘Get them to the van.’


	19. Captured

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Jack are taken prisoner by Spleen’s family, where the Doctor is ordered to do something horrific to prove his subservience.

The journey was long and slow.

Jack and the Doctor were in the back of a van – clearly well-used before as there were stains of blood on the floor. Although he and Jack were only a metre apart, neither of them could talk, both gagged, tied up and with four heavily-armed men sitting on the benches staring at them.

Rose had become usually quiet. She was terrified, the Doctor knew. And she had a particularly good reason. He’d spent the journey trying to anticipate what Spleen would do next. Would Spleen keep him, as an ornament? Would he sell him? And what about Jack? Would he be kept or would he sell him?

Neither possibility had a happy ending. They had to escape. The Doctor just wasn’t sure how. He rarely found problems undoing handcuffs, but there were far too many guns and bodies to attempt that.

They drove for precisely five hours, twenty-three minutes and sixteen seconds. When they pulled up, he and Jack were finally dragged out and escorted into the morning sunshine. In front of them was a huge mansion, but that was all the Doctor was able to take in before Spleen stepped in front of them.

‘I want the human in the dungeons and the Time Lord in the hall. Blindfold both of them so they don’t know the way out.’

One of the henchmen obediently stepped up behind the Doctor and blindfolded him. Immediately his other senses heightened to make up for the loss, and he heard them do the same to Jack.

Then they were moving.

* * *

They walked for a while, the Doctor taking mental notes of the route. Left, right, right, left, right. Eventually he heard some large doors creak open, and one hundred metres later they stopped him and pushed him to his knees.

‘Don’t move,’ one of them spat.

He didn’t answer. Clearly Jack was going to be a little tied up for a while, and perhaps the only chance of escape was to become subservient to Spleen. If he could get the draconian on his own then he could do something. But he’d have to gain his trust first.

He waited ten, long minutes in silence, able to hear the breathing of the guards holding guns inches from his head, until finally some new people arrived.

‘Wow,’ a loud voice suddenly said from behind him. The Doctor didn’t recognise it. ‘It’s really him. It’s the Doctor.’

‘One subservient Time Lord,’ Spleen said. ‘What d’you think, brother?’

‘Subservient?’ the new voice – Spleen’s brother – scoffed. He didn’t seem convinced. A pair of footsteps walked in front of the Doctor, and seconds later his chin was grabbed. His blindfold was removed and as soon as his eyes adjusted the Doctor found Spleen’s brother was stooping in front of him, with Spleen a metre behind. Spleen was grinning.

‘He didn’t even run. Too desperate to stay with the human,’ Spleen said.

His brother jolted the Doctor’s head from side to side by his grip on the Time Lord’s chin, inspecting him. ‘Can he talk?’ he asked, and removed the Doctor’s gag. The Doctor wasn’t sure if he should say anything.

A brief pause, before the Doctor was slapped so hard he fell sideways to the floor, crying out. ‘M-master Spleen,’ he stammered out, the left side of his face stinging badly. ‘What did I do to displease you?’

_ Oh god, I hate those words comin’ out your mouth. _

The Doctor agreed with her, but it couldn’t really be helped as Spleen’s brother pulled him up to his knees by his shirt.

‘See?’ Spleen said. ‘Completely gone. Just does what people say.’

The second draconian didn’t look convinced. ‘How much are we selling for then?’

‘We’re not keeping him?’ Spleen wondered.

‘He’s got no use here.’

‘But we  _ can  _ use him. The Barzellis would be more scared of us if they knew we had a Time Lord. Especially the Doctor.’

Barzelli. The Doctor rolled the name around his head for a moment. That was a huge, powerful criminal family on Sirrus. 

‘He’s a security risk. They could target him. Whoever owns the Time Lord wins the turf war,’ Spleen’s brother replied calmly. ‘Let’s sell him to someone off-world. He’ll be worth millions.’

Millions? The Doctor felt a little insulted. He was sure he’d be worth  _ billions _ , not millions.

Spleen nodded, though he looked a little disappointed. ‘All right,’ he conceded. ‘What about the immortal?’

‘Entertainment piece, I think,’ Spleen’s brother mused.

_ Oh god. _

The Doctor stopped himself from saying anything out of place, having to bite on his tongue. That meant the absolute worst for Jack. There was no doubt about that. The smirk on Spleen’s face said it all.

‘Right,’ Spleen’s brother mused, finally pulling back from the Doctor. ‘Get this one in the cells and keep him fed and watered. He needs to look good for the bidders.’

The Doctor was blindfolded again, some henchmen turning to march him out. He did catch the last words of Spleen, though.

‘Finally the  Va'A'gnorn family are going to be the greatest on Sirrus.’

Va'A'gnorn. 

He knew that name. Hadn’t Jack known?

The Va'A'gnorn family was the most powerful family to ever have existed on Sirrus. And now he and Jack were their prisoners.

* * *

He’d been led to what he could only assume to be the cells, though he couldn’t see. He was then shoved to sit down in a corner, and he felt his wrists and ankles being clamped in metal. They obviously didn’t trust him yet. At least, Spleen’s brother didn’t.

They didn’t take off his blindfold, they just left, locking a metal door behind them. So instead he tried to fathom his surroundings by touch and smell. He stuck out his feet, chains clinking, and they hit something solid about a metre from where he was sat. By their shape, he could tell they were bars. The ground was cold and hard, and it stunk to high heaven of things he didn’t particularly want to think about in too much detail.

_ Got an escape plan yet? _

Rose sounded so nervous and distant. He quickly listened to any movement from any spectators before replying. ‘No. I’m just going to be a good slave. Hopefully I might get left alone with someone.’

_ What about Jack? _

He paused, feeling a bit sick for his friend. ‘There’s no chance he’ll be able to escape. I’ll have the most freedom. I’ll get him out as soon as I can.’

_ But he’ll be okay, yeah? _

‘The Master used him as entertainment on the Valiant,’ the Doctor said, suddenly feeling very cold. When Rose had been pregnant with Leah, Jack himself had banned everyone from ever talking about it again, so that Leah and Alex would never know the word Valiant. It felt wrong to say it out loud. ‘You know the rest. I’m going to ... assume it’ll be a similar thing.’

_ Oh god.  _

‘I’m sorry.’

_ It’s not your fault, yeah? So who’s this Spleen anyway? _

‘The  Va'A'gnorn family are legendary across time on Sirrus. They’re rich and powerful. They trade in every disgusting thing you can think of.’

_ Like what? _

‘Contract killing, organised rape, black market with organs, drugs, weapons, the lot. Gambling and sex trafficking, porn, right down to film pirating. They existed on Sirrus for thousands of years.’

_ … Don’t suppose they’re going to end anytime soon? _

‘No. At this point it time they just get stronger. They don’t lose power on this continent for another two thousand years.’

_ Wait. This continent? _

‘At this point in time there are nine continents on Sirrus, each owned by a family. We’re in Jurasia, that’s owned by  the  Va'A'gnorn family. They run everything here. Literally, everything. The shops; the money circulation; the government ... if you can call it that. If we escape it’s going to be very hard not to be noticed. They have eyes everywhere.’

_ … You didn’t tell me any of this. _

‘Of course I didn’t.’

_ I’d never have let you come … _

‘That’s why I didn’t tell you, Rose.’

_ I can’t believe you didn’t say. _

‘I couldn’t tell you.’

_ But you didn’t say it! _

‘I’m sorry.’

_ And now you’re in a cage and Jack’s gonna get tortured! And what are they gonna do to you? They’re gonna hurt you! _

‘If I stay obedient then I should be okay,’ the Doctor assured her. ‘But … There’s nothing I can do to help Jack at the moment.’

As if on cue, there was a sudden scream from somewhere in the distance. 

_ That was Jack. That was Jack! _

She was shrieking inside his head. Jack screamed once more.

_ I hate you! I hate this! _

She was crying. 

‘I’m sorr-’

_ Stop sayin’ your bloody sorry all the time! Jack’s bein’ tortured! _

Another scream. The Doctor was trying not to paint a picture in his head.

_ Stop listenin’! _

He placed his hands over his ears as best he could, but it did little to muffle the next scream that came, or any of the ones that followed.

* * *

He sat there for eight hours, broken up only by Jack’s screaming and one meal delivered to him which he had to consume blindfolded using his hands.

He’d tried to get up for some circulation, but the roof of wherever he was was only a foot above him. He couldn’t stand or stretch out his legs, so he almost felt relieved when he finally heard footsteps, and the clunking of his door opening. Someone grabbed his arm and pulled him out, and commenced dragging him along the floor for a few metres until finally he was let go. Then a crowd arrived, laughing and chatting.

Finally, someone got rid of his blindfold. It took a few moments for him to focus, and he saw a group of draconians standing over him. Among them was Spleen and his brother, and older male draconian and a younger female draconian. The latter was gazing at him with wide eyes.

‘Father, this is the Doctor,’ Spleen said happily.

An older draconian nodded approvingly. ‘Spleen, you have done very well. And he is completely subservient?’

‘That remains to be seen,’ Spleen’s brother drawled.

‘He is,’ Spleen assured them, and looked at the Doctor. ‘Who’s your master?’

‘You are, Master Spleen,’ the Doctor replied, still lying on the floor.

‘He still might be faking it,’ Spleen’s brother chipped in again.

Spleen’s father nodded, and stepped forward to loom large over the Doctor. He was so fat and tall that the Doctor couldn’t see around him. He folded his arms, and fixed the Time Lord with a fierce glare. ‘I warn you, Time Lord. I have killed your kind before. You cannot fool me.’

‘I serve only Master Spleen,’ the Doctor retorted in a deadpan voice.

‘Okay, let’s find out,’ Spleen’s brother said. The Doctor didn’t like his tone very much. ‘Let’s go and visit the immortal again.’

The Doctor suddenly had a sinking feeling.

* * *

He’d been blindfolded one more, and marched at gunpoint by the family. Right, left, right, one hundred metres. When they got to their destination his blindfold was whipped off, and he saw Jack.

_ Oh my god!!! _

He had to fight to stop himself raging. Jack was standing there in ripped clothes, chained in a cold, grotty little room with blood on the floor. It could only be his. This was almost exactly the Valiant. Despite his situation, Jack saw the Doctor, giving him a quick once over with his eyes before offering him a smile.

‘Hey,’ he said, winking.

The Doctor was painfully aware of the Va'A'gnorn family watching him with hawk eyes. He didn’t react.

‘Slave,’ Spleen prompted, and the Doctor turned to him. Spleen was holding out a knife, indicating he should take it. He did, already knowing what happened next. ‘Slit his throat.’

Despite knowing it had been coming, it still made him freeze.

_ But you can’t! _

‘Hurry up,’ Spleen prompted.

_ Use the knife! Threaten them! Escape! _

He had a knife, yes, but they were still surrounded by armed guards, deep inside a mansion he only knew the way out of via the memorised direction towards the entrance hall, not to mention his feet were in manacles. But she knew that. So he turned on his heel, and walked slowly to Jack hanging there in the centre of the room.

_ No! Please! _

Rose was screaming inside his head, but he tried to ignore her. He looked at Jack, who was staring at him with piercing blue eyes.

He reached Jack and lifted the knife, resting it lightly on Jack’s exposed neck.

He was being watched. He couldn’t even mouth sorry.

Jack just nodded slightly. 

For Rose’s benefit, the Doctor closed his eyes. Once more his other senses increased tenfold. He felt the knife in his hand, heard Jack’s lungs expanding and contracting, and his heart racing.

In one swift movement, he slit his best friend’s throat.

_ No! _

Jack grunted, but that was all as liquid hit the floor. He ignored it, turning back to the Va'A'gnorn family and finally opening his eyes. They all looked very happy, apart from Spleen’s brother, who was just watching with a blank expression. The girl was also staring at him, looking him up and down.

‘Excellent,’ Spleen’s father said. Out of the corner of the Doctor’s eye he could see Jack’s blood seeping out from between his shoes. ‘Let’s get his slave choker on and invite the bidders. Spleen,’ he directed to his son. ‘Activate the teleport. We’ll auction tomorrow.’


	20. Ka Faraq Gatri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Va'A'gnorns prepare to sell the Doctor into slavery.

The Doctor had been condemned to slavery many times before in his life by a menagerie of angry species, but never before in this particular time period. As such, he wasn’t entirely au fait with the technological trend for slavery and hadn’t know what to expect when Spleen’s father had uttered the words ‘slave choker’. Something particularly unpleasant and hard to remove, he supposed.

He wasn’t wrong. Spleen’s brother took him directly from Jack’s cell to some sort of slave processing area, filled with other poor souls who had managed to become victims of the slave trade. All species, genders and ages. They were dirty and clearly underfed, not to mention utterly terrified. They each had a black band of metal around their necks that was clearly causing them a lot of distress through pain, and the Doctor could see blood on the back of their necks.

Luckily, the Va'A'gnorn family had clearly decided that with his auction the next day, having him turn up covered in blood was not appropriate. So he was laid out on a table and given a VitChip on the back of his neck, fixed into place by a band of metal fixed with skin adhesive, by a threatening-looking man holding a hammer. It hurt, but he reasoned he was hardly in the position to complain with all the poor people outside, blood running down their necks.

He was then taken back to his cell, his blindfold removed. Spleen’s brother then made a big point that he had the Doctor’s VitChip controller secreted in his finger, that could administer shocks if needed. They then left him there with a plate of vile-looking food.

Finally he was able to see where he was being held. It was a grotty little cell built more like cruel containment for a dog, not large enough to stand or stretch out. There was an entire line of them, but most were empty. Others were filled with rotting corpses, or people so abused they might as well have been dead, and gaining any sort of conversation with them was hopeless. Bars surrounded him on three sides with a wall behind him and his hands and feet were manacled together in front of him. There was some blood on the cold, hard ground, and on his hands from what he’d done to Jack. He managed to get some of it off by rubbing them against the concrete and his clothes.

Rose hadn’t uttered a word since he’d killed Jack. He didn’t blame her. He felt unbelievably dirty. Although he knew Jack was immortal – that he hadn’t killed him – it still felt that way. Despite getting most of the blood off of himself he could still feel it. 

He wondered if he’d ever forgive himself for that one.

_ I hate you. _

‘I know,’ was all the Doctor replied, staring at the ground.

_ Got your bright plan yet?  _

Sarcasm.

_ Or still gonna be a good slave while they torture Jack and sell you to the highest bidder? _

‘It’s our only chance …’

_ Shut up! You knew! You knew this might happen! _

‘I didn’t  _ know  _ that it would …’

_ This is all your fault! _

‘I’m s-’

_ Sorry doesn’t cut it anymore, Doctor! We’re never gonna see the TARDIS again, are we? I’m never gonna see my mum, the kids, Jack’ll never see Ianto again … That’s it! You’re gonna be made a slave and I’m gonna be in your head forever, or until your brain collapses from havin’ me in here! _

She was crying and screaming her words now.

‘We had to.’

_ Yeah, we had to, right! _

More sarcasm. More crying. More screaming.

_ You didn’t even try a psychograft or anythin’, did you, you just took it like this was the only choice! And now we’re gonna die and we’ll never see ‘em again! _

‘But …’

_ Shut up, okay, just shut up! _

He shut his mouth for a few moments, just staring at his manacled wrists.

‘Rose?’

_ I told you to shut up! _

‘We’ll see them again. I promise.’

_ No, we won’t! _

‘Rose, if you’ve ever trusted me before then trust me no-’

_ It doesn’t make a dif- _

‘Shut up!’ the Doctor yelled fiercely. She did. ‘I’m going to get out of here before I’m traded, save Jack, find this healer and put you back in your body. Believe in me.’

There was a resounding silence in his head.

‘Rose,’ he prompted.

_ … Okay. _

‘Please don't hate me.’

She sighed.

_ I don’t, I’m just ... I’m scared. _

‘Good, because I’m terrified. But we’ll see them again.’

_ Okay. I love you. _

‘Same to you.’

_ Please don’t be a slave. _

‘Not planning to,’ he assured her.

_ I can’t see you like that. It's bad enough when you pretend to be. _

‘I know. But for now it's a waiting game.’

_ Yeah. God. I wanna hug you so bad. _

He smiled a little. ‘Soon,’ he assured her.

_ I also wanna slap you though.  _

On cue, the Doctor’s right hand launched up and he smacked himself across the face without any input from him whatsoever. He jolted, utterly surprised.

There was a brief, shocked pause.

_ … Did you just slap yourself? _

‘I didn’t …’ the Doctor muttered, staring at his rogue hand.

_ But … _

Suddenly the far door opened. He looked up, and to his complete surprise he saw it was the younger female draconian who’d been staring at him throughout their encounter earlier. She moved straight towards him.

_ What the hell is she doing? _

The Doctor resisted the urge to frown as she reached his cage, hovering outside momentarily.

‘You’re bleeding, Time Lord,’ she stated.

The Doctor suddenly realised there was something warm dripping out of his nose. He reached up and wiped his hand under it, checking. She wasn’t lying. He was having another nosebleed.

‘What have you been doing?’ the woman asked him.

‘Nothing,’ the Doctor replied.

‘Hmm,’ the woman mused. ‘Defective goods.’

She unlocked the door, grabbed his foot and yanked him out into the open.

‘Stand up,’ she ordered firmly. ‘And I warn you, I have your slave controller. Five hundred volts in through your neck.’ 

He did what he was told, a little more than confused. He noted that she kept glancing around, as though worried someone was watching. 

‘Follow me.’ The woman began to walk at a pace he could manage with his manacled feet. She led him through the corridors of the underground prison, not hesitating. He recognised the pattern from the journey before. They were going to Jack’s cell. Why …?

She opened the door and kicked the Doctor inside. He ended up on the ground in front of Jack in a smear of dried blood.

‘Yeah, come to get him to kill me a little bit more?’ Jack wondered loudly. The Doctor looked up at him, a little worried, but Jack was defiantly staring at the woman.

‘Be quiet,’ the woman ordered, producing a gun and pointing it at Jack.

‘Well, c’mon,’ Jack prompted. ‘Get on with it.’ 

The woman glared at him, then took the Doctor’s foot and dragged him back along the floor away from Jack. She then stepped over him, straddling him and grabbing his shirt to pull his face close to hers. ‘I’ve got some clients coming in a few hours that are interested in you two,’ she finally said. ‘Big,  _ big _ money.’

As she pulled him into a violent snog, the Doctor realised what her clients were paying for. So did Rose, and Jack.

‘Get the fuck off of him!’ Jack swore.

_ Get off! GET OFF! _

After a few seconds of feeling like he was being snogged by a leathery vacuum cleaner the draconian pulled back, and reached down his body. 

Nope, he decided. 

He pushed her off as hard as he could, taking the surprise to scoop up her gun and turn, aiming straight at her. She shrieked and ran for the door, but he fired a warning shot centimetres from her head. She screamed again, freezing into position.

‘The next one’s going into your left leg,’ the Doctor informed her casually, as if chatting about the weather. ‘Right into your blood sac and central nervous system. Most painful death a draconian can experience. You’ll lie there, in agony, paralysed and bleeding. I doubt anyone will find you in time to save you.’

She was staring at him, wide-eyed. She held up her forefinger quickly, in which his slave controller could have been secreted. ‘I’ve got your controller, Time Lord! Back off or I’ll shock you!’

‘No, you don’t,’ the Doctor replied simply. ‘Hands on your hand, please.’

‘But … But you’re subservient! You’re meant to do what we say!’ she cried out, clearly panicking.

‘Sorry, Mistress what's-your-name,’ the Doctor responded with a casual shrug. ‘Hands on your head.’

She put her hands on her head. ‘My father will miss me, and then I’ll tell him what you did to me and then he’ll find you and make your life hell, just like your human friend! He’ll know you’re not subservient!’ Her voice was trembling slightly.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. ‘You’ve been looking around nervously since you arrived. They don’t know you’re here. You invited clients from your business to come for me in complete secret, at a time you knew I wouldn’t be visited after hours. After all, I highly doubt that your family would allow me to be compromised in that way so close to selling me. No one will miss you until morning because, as you know, no one’s coming to visit me or Jack. Your clients are relying on you to let them in, but you won’t be there, will you?’

She stared at him, utterly flabbergasted. 

‘Give me the key to unlock Jack, please. Let’s keep those movements nice and slow,’ the Doctor told her.

Clearly she realised she had no choice as her hand began to move to her pocket. She reached in and pulled out her key.

‘Now drop it on the floor and kick it here.’

She did. He caught it under his foot.

‘Now sit crossed-legged, turn and face the wall, hands on your head,’ he ordered her.

‘You can’t …’

‘I’m not feeling very patient. Get on with it,’ he spat.

She did, shaking violently. She was scared. Still with one eye on her he unlocked Jack’s chains. The human grunted, finally able to lower his arms and rub his wrists. The Doctor briefly tested the key on his manacles, but of course it was the wrong key.

‘Now the key for mine?’ the Doctor asked.

‘I don’t have it ...’

‘Oh, come on. You can do better than that.’

‘I don’t,’ the draconian protested, on the verge of tears. ‘Spleen has it, I swear …’

The Doctor glanced at Jack, who nodded. She probably didn’t have it.

‘Can I hit her?’ Jack wondered anyway, clenching his fists.

‘No,’ the Doctor said. ‘Let’s chain her up and leave.’

Jack moved forward, grabbing the draconian under the arms. She screamed but Jack was much stronger than her, pulling her over to the place he’d been standing and dragging her to her feet.

‘Raise your hands,’ the Doctor ordered her, keeping the gun pointed at her.

‘Please don’t do this!’ she cried, sobbing.

‘We can do this the easy way or the hard way,’ Jack grated.

The draconian shuddered, but obediently held her arms out. Jack clamped her wrists, standing her exactly as he’d been standing before.

‘P-please!’ the draconian stammered, tears pouring down her face.

‘Let’s go,’ Jack said, making to leave, but the Doctor stopped, and looked at the coating of dried blood on the floor. He knelt down, and used the point of the gun to trace a symbol in it.

As the symbol took form, the draconian shrieked, panicking.

‘You’re … You’re Ka Faraq Gatri! The Destroyer of Worlds!’ she realised, wide-eyed.

Silently the Doctor finished drawing and stood up. He gave her one look of utter contempt.

He then left out of the door with Jack following.

* * *

‘We’ve got loads of time, as long as we don’t walk into anyone,’ the Doctor told Jack quietly as they walked, after the Time Lord had spat enough saliva out, obviously to try and get rid of the taste of the draconian.

‘God, you can be really scary y’know,’ Jack murmured. ‘You realise you just made one of the members of this insane mafia cry?’

‘She is a sick, disgusting person. I’ve seen what her “business” has done to innocent people. She didn’t deserve anything better,’ the Doctor responded curtly.

‘That symbol you drew. What was it?’ Jack asked.

‘It used to be the insignia of the ship I commanded in the Time War,’ the Doctor muttered as they walked. ‘And when people saw it, they …’

He trailed off.

‘When people saw it, they knew they were going to die,’ Jack realised quietly.

The Doctor nodded once, short and sharp. Then he stopped, taking Jack’s arm. ‘I’m so sorry I killed you.’

‘It’s okay. I’ve got used to being killed,’ Jack advised him. 

The Doctor looked quite pained at that. Then he started walking again. Jack was being slow for the benefit of his manacled feet.

‘We need to get out of here, then you need to remove my chip, Jack,’ the Doctor told him, gesturing to his neck.

Jack immediately felt nervous. ‘But …’

‘It’s okay, I’ll guide you,’ the Doctor told him quickly. ‘But it’s a VitChip, it’ll tell my controller my location, and they can shock me. It needs to be removed.’

‘So where are we going? What’s the escape route?’

‘I don’t know the quick way out, they kept me blindfolded when they moved me around,’ the Doctor confessed. ‘But I’ve got an idea. We need to get to the slave processing area.’

‘Getting out on the next distribution?’ Jack supposed.

The Doctor nodded. ‘And hopefully free a few of them if we can.’

Jack nodded. ‘Lead the way.’

‘Oh.’ The Doctor suddenly proffered the gun he was holding to Jack. ‘Take this.’

Jack did, confused. ‘Wait, what? You’re giving me a gun?’

‘Insurance. Keep it hidden,’ the Doctor advised him, and walked off.

For a moment Jack just stared at the weapon in his hand. The Doctor wasn’t usually one for handing out weaponry. Things had become deeply serious very quickly.

Jack shoved it away, and quickly ran to catch up with the Time Lord.   



	21. The Slave Trade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Jack make their escape on a lorry of slaves. Brax takes drastic action to save Alex.

The  Va'A'gnorn family had clearly decided that no one was going to escape from their prison and as such there were no guards anywhere on the doors. They were also all old, key lock doors without any fingerprint locks or advanced technology. It was an all-around safer system, but the key the Doctor had acquired from the female seemed to fit all the locks. So they made their way down the route the Doctor had memorised, and ended up in the slave processing area, where there was some kind of move going on with thirty or so slaves being forced at gunpoint down a corridor by several guards.

‘Heading out?’ Jack proposed. ‘Ready for dispatch.’

The Doctor paused, thinking for a moment. His eyes flickered around, clearly processing all the options. ‘Looks like it. We need to get in the crowd.’ He closed his eyes, talking to Rose, ‘yeah, I know.’

‘What did she say?’ Jack asked.

‘My manacles will make too much noise.’

Jack nodded. ‘I’ll carry you,’ he said. The Doctor nodded and they quickly moved back into the corridor, where Jack hauled him on his shoulders.

He then moved forward soundlessly to check for guards, the Doctor hanging over his shoulders. There was a small gap that Jack would probably just be able to slip through to join the crowd.

He waited until the nearest guard was turned away, and moved as fast as he could into the crowd of slaves. They all looked surprised but parted obediently.

‘Please hide us!’ he begged, lowering the Doctor who quickly got up, stooping slightly. The shuffling of unwilling feet, the coughing of the sick, the crying of the tormented and the constant sound of people being beaten by the guards in other areas was covering up the sound of his manacles chinking against the floor.

Whoever the slaves were, they seemed to just obey him. Many of them moved to walk closer to them as they kept low in amongst the throng of bloody, dirty bodies, their necks in strange collars. Jack kept his hand on the Doctor’s shoulder to make sure he was close.

The crowd kept walking at gunpoint, through an entrance into a hangar, and then to another room beyond. As soon as they were all in, the door locked, sealing them all in.

_ ‘Four hours until transport docking for slave group #4,532,327,’  _ an automated disembodied voice said from above them.

Jack and the Doctor quickly checked for cameras – there were none. The Doctor then stood up to full height, looking around. ‘Thank you,’ he said to them all. It was then several people stopped and properly looked at him, their eyes widening in recognition.

‘I know you,’ one of the women whispered, wide-eyed. ‘You’re the Doctor.’

The Doctor looked a bit worried. Jack was too. The last time a crowd had identified him he’d nearly been lynched. ‘... Yes,’ the Doctor said.

‘My sister. Do you remember?’

‘What was her name?’ the Doctor asked.

‘Kezra. On Kimor Five.’

The Doctor’s face suddenly lit up. ‘Yes, I remember her. Brown hair?’

‘Yes,’ she replied, not moving her head to nod, Jack noticed. ‘You took her hand and guided her out of the fire. She called you her guardian angel.’

He smiled at that. ‘Did she take up her art in the end?’

‘Yes,’ the woman replied, still not nodding. ‘She earns a good living out of it now.’

The Doctor beamed. ‘Good. She’s talented.’

Jack stared at him. Out of all of the people the Doctor had met in the universe, how exactly could he remember one on a minor planet with aspirations of being an artist?

‘You saved me,’ another voice said. They all looked to see a tadkedian sitting there, almost in tears. 

‘Chay’to,’ the Doctor said, obviously recognising him. ‘How are Kee and Muy’to? They’ll be what … seventeen and twenty-six now wouldn’t they?’

Children? He was even remembering the  _ children? _

‘Yes,’ Chay’to replied. Jack noticed that still, nobody had moved their head a single inch. ‘Muy’to’s a scientist and Kee wants to be a doctor.’

The Doctor beamed again. ‘Good for them.’

‘And my little brother. You saved my little brother.’

They all turned once more to a species that Jack didn’t recognise, sitting there as upright as the rest of them. He looked horrifyingly young. He was almost crying.

‘The earthquake on Neepa Major,’ he said.

The Doctor nodded. ‘I remember. I’m sorry, there were so many people, I’m not sure who he was.’

‘He can’t walk properly, he said you threw yourself over him to protect him, then once it was over you checked he was okay then went to help all the injured people.’

The Doctor, once again, nodded. ‘I remember. I didn’t get the time to ask his name.’

‘Yeah, too busy saving lives,’ the alien replied, and laughed. He jolted, which caused him to shriek in pain. Everyone else seemed to flinch in sympathy pain.

‘Your chokers,’ the Doctor said, gesturing at his neck. ‘Is that why none of you are moving your heads?’

‘It hurts too much, Doctor,’ a woman replied.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Gnola.’

‘Can I take a look?’ the Doctor asked gently.

She moved her ponytail, wincing as she did so. He carefully leaned in, examining the device.

‘What is it?’ Jack asked.

‘In structure it’s a ring of metal, adjustable for neck width.’ The Doctor ran a finger carefully around its edge. ‘Skin adhesive’s been used around the neck to fuse it to the skin.’ He moved to the back next. ‘No skin adhesive here, but … There’s something penetrating the neck. Two blades of some kind, sharp ...’ The Doctor paused, looking at the crowd. ‘That’s why none of you are moving your heads,’ he realised. ‘So you don’t shift what’s cutting into your necks.’

Jack felt a little sick. They had to be in constant, horrific pain.

The Doctor just nodded, sitting back and pushing Gnola’s hair back for her. ‘Sorry if I hurt you,’ he said sincerely.

‘You can’t hurt me anymore than it does already,’ Gnola gasped.

‘I will get it off of you, okay?’ he told her, and then looked around at the rest of them. ‘I’ll get them off of all of you.’

‘Why are you here?’ one of the slaves asked, tears in their eyes. ‘You can’t be.’

‘Let us help you escape,’ Chay’to said urgently. ‘You are too precious to be here.’

The Doctor offered a half-smile. ‘Precious?’ he queried, shooting a grin at Jack. Jack found himself rolling his eyes, exasperated. ‘I’m here to find someone who might be able to help me, and I’m also here to help you escape.’

‘Escape?’ one of the slaves asked, bewildered.

‘Yep,’ the Doctor affirmed, nodding. ‘We’re going to escape and I’m going to get those collars off of you. Then you won’t be slaves anymore.’

‘Really?’ another slave asked.

‘Really,’ the Doctor confirmed. They all looked at him, so hopeful. 

This was how it really was, Jack realised. It wasn’t about the man he’d seen, broken after Rose’s apparent death, clinging to every pore of her body. It wasn’t about the man who’d been so badly abused in New Shada that Jack had had to dress him. It wasn’t about the man who’d pleaded with Jack to punch him and tie him up. It wasn’t about the man who’d closed his eyes as he’d slit Jack’s throat. It wasn’t about the man who had given Jack a loaded gun.  _ This  _ was the man the Doctor was. The one who gave people such unconditional hope. The one who cared about and remembered everything about every person he’d ever met. The one who grinned at Jack when his ego had just been petted. The one who always seemed to convince everyone that everything was going to work out absolutely fine, despite massive evidence to the contrary.

The Doctor; resented by the bad, loved by the good. It had been so long since Jack had seen him he’d almost forgotten him. He wanted to kiss him, but quickly decided that was probably a little inappropriate right now, what with the Doctor doing his whole saving-everybody-in-here-whether-you-like-it-or-not thing. He’d do it later.

‘Once we escape we need somewhere to go,’ the Doctor told them all. ‘Somewhere I can get all of your collars off.’

‘My brother runs a clinic in the underground,’ one of the slaves suddenly said. Jack looked over to see a fairly young-looking humanoid boy with messy black hair.

The Doctor nodded. ‘It is close?’

‘It’s the underground entrance five miles east,’ the boy replied.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Seth.’

‘Seth, if I can get us all out of transit and get us five miles east, would you know the way to go?’

‘Yeah, I grew up around there.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Okay. So we get put into transit, me and Jack will break out us, and Seth, you can lead us to the underground. I’ll then remove all your collars.’

‘Okay,’ all the slaves affirmed.

The Doctor then turned to Jack. ‘Sorry,’ he suddenly said.

Jack was confused. ‘For what?’

‘Because you need to take mine off now. Just pull on the bracket and do the catch on the VitChip.’

Jack stared at him, alarmed. ‘I can’t. We don’t have the tools. I’d … rip your skin off.’

‘It’s fairly fresh, it won’t have completely bonded yet,’ the Doctor told him. ‘It’ll take some skin off but it’ll be okay.’

Jack was panicking. ‘I can’t … because …’ He paused, desperately trying to think of a reason not to. ‘Because … Because your screams will alert the guards.’

In reply to that, the Doctor simply reached into Jack’s inner pocket and pulled out the needle gun. He’d forgotten he had that.

‘Good luck,’ the Doctor told him, and shot himself with the barbiturate.

‘No, wait …’

It was too late. The Doctor let it take him as he sagged, and fell forward straight onto Jack.

The crowd gasped a little, and Jack shared their feelings. The Doctor, their only hope, was now utterly helpless and completely in Jack’s hands. And the Doctor was right of course. Dawn would break, and the family would realise he’d escaped, then they’d use the VitChip to locate him. It had to be completely destroyed.

Jack grunted, maneuvered the Doctor to lie on his front and looked at the VitChip. It was secured underneath a small metal bracket fixed with skin adhesive. He got his fingers just under the bracket, and tentatively pulled, but it was going to take more force than that. He pulled again with slightly more force. Then more. Then more. Soon he was using all of his strength in desperation to get the bracket off. It was peeling, millimetre by millimetre as the Doctor began to bleed.

Then it came off, making a terrible sound as it did so. Jack quickly moved forward, placing his cuffs over the bleeding points. The cloth turned red immediately.

Then it was the VitChip. It would have latched onto the Time Lord’s spinal column, and removing it was going to be even harder than the bracket. He reached forward and took the VitChip between his now bloody thumb and fingers, pulling just a little. It was definitely fixed into the Doctor quite well, but if he could give it the right sort of pressure it would automatically retract. He took the bloody metal bracket he’d pulled off, scraping it against the concrete to get rid of what he’d pulled off with it and wedged it under the VitChip, attempting to find the sweet spot.

It seemed to take forever, as all of the slaves surrounding them watched in tense silence. It had to be a good five minutes before he finally managed to hit the release, and the pins automatically retracted. More blood. Jack covered it again, and waited for the bleeding to stop.

He felt absolutely sick that Brax had wanted him to put one of these VitChips on his brother.

It eventually stopped bleeding, but when Jack pulled away he saw the Doctor’s neck and shirt collar were coated in blood, and his skin was stripped where the metal bracket had rested. Internally Jack cursed the Va'A'gnorns, not just for this, but for all of the poor people in the room who had it far worse than him.

He pulled the Doctor back up, the Time Lord still utterly limp. He placed him carefully in one of the slave’s laps, who obediently held him as though they were being asked to hold the son of God. Then Jack scooped up the VitChip, placed it under his foot and stamped it repeatedly, trying to make it turn to dust.

Its light went out. Broken. They were safe – for now, at least.

He turned back to the slaves and checked the Doctor. He was okay, still asleep from the barbiturate.

‘We need to keep him hidden,’ Jack said. ‘If they find him, this is all over.’

* * *

Brax had remained by his nephew’s side for the entire twenty-four hour period he’d given the boy to recover. He then, under Jackie’s watchful eye, carefully took him from the bed to the scanner. He put the little boy inside and sealed it.

He and Jackie watched, waiting for the scanner to finish. It finally beeped, and delivered a printout. Nervously, Brax took it.

‘What does it say?’ Jackie asked, her voice barely audible.

‘The poison is gone, but …’ He paused, double-checking the readout to make sure he hadn’t misread it. ‘But his … his internal system is failing. He’s dying.’

‘This can’t be happenin’,’ Jackie muttered, in tears as she gazed at her tiny grandson still in the scanner, pale and comatose. Brax moved forward, opening the lid of the scanner and taking his nephew back out. He was so limp.

He placed Alex gently back on the bed in amongst all the toys Leah had got him, reattaching him to many intravenous lines including a few new ones. He now had to concentrate on extending Alex’s life for as long as possible. As he worked, Jackie moved over to the bed, hugging Alex and kissing him, crying. When Brax was finished he retook his seat and for a moment they both just sat there, staring at the dying child. 

‘Granny? Uncle Brax?’ It was Leah, walking into the infirmary.

Jackie offered her a watery smile. ‘Hello, sweetheart.’

Leah stared between them in turn. Her face fell. ‘He’s gonna die, isn’t he?’ she asked, her voice trembling.

There was a brief silence.

‘No,’ Brax suddenly decided, standing up. ‘He’s not dying.’

Jackie and Leah looked at him. ‘We’re gonna save him?’ Leah asked quietly.

Brax nodded, decision made. ‘Yes.’ He moved to Leah. ‘I need your help.’

‘What for?’ Leah asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.

‘I’m going to need to use your timeline.’

‘What?’ Leah asked, confused. 

‘Your father is the only one who can save Alex, so we need to find him. We can only find him using your timeline.’

Leah suddenly looked incredibly relieved. ‘We’re gonna find Daddy?’

Brax nodded. ‘Somewhere in the future. But I need you.’

Leah looked at her gran, who was just sitting there holding Alex’s hand. Then she looked back at Brax.

‘Okay,’ Leah said firmly, and immediately ran off.

Brax looked back at Jackie. ‘Any problems, tell the Tardis. No one can come into the console room while we’re travelling across Thete’s timeline. It’s too risky.’

Jackie nodded. ‘Thank you,’ was all she said, and turned back to Alex.

Brax exited, leaving the beep of his nephew’s life support machines behind him.


	22. F is for Future Daddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brax finds the future Doctor and brings him back to Alex as the Doctor and Jack continue their escape plan.

‘Stand there,’ Uncle Brax said. Leah nodded, and obediently moved to where he was pointing at a spot just above the ramp in the console room. ‘I’m going to be accessing your timeline to find you somewhere in the future.’

‘Why my timeline?’ Leah wondered.

‘Because you’re guaranteed to stay with your father, so wherever you are, your father will be too. I’ll be using the Tardis to measure your timestream. We will hear parts of your future, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum so I don’t have to erase your memory. Okay?’

Leah nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘You’re going to be hearing your own voice, in short bursts,’ Uncle Brax informed her, tapping a few buttons on the console. ‘But it’ll be quick. I’ll keep going until I manage to fix a location on your father. Keep as still as you can.’

‘Okay,’ she said again.

‘Now close your eyes, this might feel a little uncomfortable,’ Uncle Brax said.

Leah closed her eyes, clenching her fists to brace herself for what was to come. Within seconds the TARDIS made a high-pitched whining noise that seemed to drill right into her brain, before there was a loud clunk that startled her slightly.

Then there were whispers, seemingly right behind her. She resisted the urge to look. Then they increased in volume, and she could make out words.

_ ‘Dadda, uv yoo.’ _

_ ‘You no see it, Daddy, please, I stay and help, 'k?’  _

_ ‘Please give me Floppy back.’  _

_ ‘Yeah, if you touch 'em and they're in a bad mood they might kill you.’ _

_ ‘Was that all really me, Uncle Brax?’ _

_ ‘Daddy!’ _

_ ‘Are you better now, Mummy?’ _

_ ‘Can I hold him? Please? Can I?’ _

_ ‘Theo, don't be such a baby!’ _

_ ‘Uncle Jack, this is so boring.’ _

_ ‘You're not funny, Dad.’ _

_ ‘Mum! Look out!’ _

_ ‘I'll fix it. I'll fix it.’ _

_ ‘Dad, I'm scared.’ _

_ ‘Why can’t you save him? You can do anything!’ _

Then the voices abruptly stopped.

‘Got a location,’ Uncle Brax said. Leah dared to open her eyes to see him hunched over the console, staring at the screen.

‘Was that really all me, Uncle Brax?’ she asked, wide-eyed.

‘Yes, it was,’ Brax answered, still tapping at the console buttons. Slowly his face turned into a frown. ‘Anzen? What’s he doing on Anzen?’

‘What’s Anzen?’ Leah asked.

‘It’s a safe haven for people who …’ Uncle Brax suddenly stopped. ‘Nah. He’s visiting,’ he ended up finishing.

‘Safe haven for people who what?’ Leah persisted.

Uncle Brax looked at her. ‘Don’t worry. Now, stay in here while I go and fetch your father.’

‘Can’t I come?’

‘No. I’ll only be a few minutes. Go to your room so you don’t see him.’

* * *

Brax saw his brother the moment he stepped out of the TARDIS, standing at the entrance to the Anzen Palace ten metres away with his arms folded. He was still the same Thete, with the same face and same clothes, if a little more smartly dressed than usual. He had a new tie and a haircut. The moment Thete saw Brax he stood to attention, nodding to his brother.

‘You knew I was coming,’ Brax realised, frowning.

Thete nodded.

‘So I tell you what happens here?’ Brax asked.

Thete gestured at the Anzen Palace behind him. ‘You kind of have to after seeing this, don’t you?’

Brax’s frown deepened. ‘But why? Why are you here?’

‘Why do you think?’ Thete asked seriously. ‘I’m visiting him.’

‘By “him”, you mean…’

‘Yes.’

Brax swallowed nervously. ‘I’m … I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s been fifteen years, we’ve got used to it,’ Thete assured him, and then gestured to the TARDIS doors. ‘Lead the way.’

* * *

After much deliberation, Leah had decided that she was going to completely ignore her Uncle’s order for her to go to her room, and had stood waiting in the console room instead. 

The moment the door opened, she was running forward.

‘Daddy!’ she shrieked happily as she saw her Dad strolling in. He beamed a radiant smile, dropping to his knees to meet her in a huge hug. 

‘Um, I don’t think …’ Uncle Brax began, but it was pointless.

‘Hey,’ her daddy said, kissing her on the forehead. ‘Been a few years since I saw you like this.’

‘So you’re from the future?’ Leah asked when she finally pulled back. He nodded. ‘What’s the future like? What am I like? Am I tall, Daddy?’

‘You’re as tall as me,’ he replied, grinning.

Leah grinned back. ‘So I’m really, really tall? Can I fly the Tardis? Properly?’

‘Of course you can. You’re better at it than me.’

‘Am I smart?’

_ ‘Very.  _ And before you ask, you’re better at  _ everything  _ than me.’

‘Leah …’ Uncle Brax attempted to intervene, but Leah ignored him.

‘Am I pretty?’ she asked next.

‘You’re beautiful,’ he assured her. ‘Just like Mummy, just with my best features.’

She laughed and hugged him again. ‘I really miss you,’ she told him. ‘I mean, the you now.’

‘I know,’ her future Daddy replied. ‘But he’ll be back very soon.’

‘So you fix Mummy?’

‘Of course I do,’ her Daddy replied with mock affront. ‘You think I won’t?’

Leah giggled and hugged him for the third time. ‘I love you, Daddy.’

‘I love you too.’

‘Thete, please, I don’t want to have to erase her memory,’ Uncle Brax insisted.

‘Oh, come on, I’m just telling her the obvious,’ her daddy replied, grinning again as he stood back up. Leah took his hand in both of hers immediately.

‘Leah, you’ll have to stay here in the console room while your father…’ Uncle Brax started again.

‘No!’ Leah interrupted, tugging her daddy’s hand. ‘Stay, stay, stay!’ she demanded of him. ‘You’re gonna save Alex, right?’

He nodded. ‘Of course I am.’

‘Thete!’ Uncle Brax tried again at the clear travesty of time happening right in front of him.

‘What? It’s obvious,’ her daddy replied innocently.

‘He’s this way!’ Leah told him, and began to drag her future daddy towards the infirmary.

* * *

Ten minutes after Jack had removed the VitChip from the Doctor, they were being moved into transit. The Doctor was still unconscious, so Jack had to drag him by the neck of his coat while attempting to remain under the sea of heads so they wouldn’t be spotted. The Va'A'gnorns wouldn’t have discovered they were missing yet, but it was only a matter of time. They would most likely lock down their entire estate, and he and the Doctor had to be on the other side of the gate when they did. Anything else would make life exceptionally difficult.

The slaves obediently walked close to him and the Doctor, shielding them from the view of the guards who were revelling in waving their guns around and using their whips. Every time they hit someone Jack cursed quietly to himself, swearing that he and the Doctor would liberate them.

Midway through the move, the guards were getting impatient. More cracks of the whips made the crowd shriek and disperse a little, but many of them stayed resolutely close to the Doctor, to keep him shielded and to stop people stepping on him accidentally.

They finally reached the transport - it was a lorry. They were all forced inside, which barely had enough room to contain them all before the doors were closed and barred from the outside.

Then the engine started, and they were moving. Jack kept the Doctor in his lap, letting his head loll on his shoulder. He had to pull the Doctor’s long legs in to get some more space for the other people to sit, one of which was Seth, who was looking very nervous.

‘It’ll be okay,’ Jack felt inclined to say at the sight of his expression, holding tightly onto the Time Lord. ‘Just follow the Doctor’s direction.’

‘Okay,’ Seth replied, though he didn't look any less nervous at the prospect.

* * *

Brax led his future brother with Leah through the TARDIS, making sure no one was going to step out of a door unexpectedly and see them. They eventually made it to the infirmary without any confrontation, but Jackie was still sitting next to Alex’s bed, reading him a book.

‘Jackie,’ Brax said as he stepped inside. ‘I’ve got the future version of the Doctor. You're going to have to leave.’

‘No, it’s okay,’ the future Doctor said as he followed Brax in. Brax sighed, rolling his eyes a little and consequently deciding to give up on trying to preserve the Laws of Time.

Jackie gazed up at the future Doctor, frowning. ‘So you’re, um, from the future?’

‘Yes.’

‘How far?’

‘I can’t say,’ the future Doctor replied, reaching Alex’s bed with Leah still clutching onto him. He looked at Alex lying there supine, attached to a thousand machines. For a moment he just stood still, watching him.

‘What?’ Jackie wanted to know. ‘Get on with it!’

The future Doctor looked at her briefly, then back at his son. He then leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

‘Okay,’ the future Doctor finally murmured as he straightened, nodding to himself. ‘Let’s save you, Alex.’ He stood up straight, looking at Brax. ‘I need the medical trolley and oxygen.’

Brax nodded, and jogged into the supplies cupboard.

‘Can I help, Daddy?’ Leah asked.

‘Yes. I need you to stand here…’ He pulled her to a place next to the life support machine, and pointed out at the readout. ‘If his heartsbeat drops below eighty-five or his blood pressure below seventy over forty, then scream the place down, okay?’

‘Okay.’

‘What can I do?’ Jackie wanted to know.

The future Doctor looked a little winded. ‘Umm … Nothing Jackie, you’re fine. Just stand back.’

Jackie glared at him, sharp enough to cut through his eyeballs. ‘This is my grandson! I wanna help!’

‘Okay, okay.’ He paused, thinking about that. ‘Well, a cup of tea wouldn’t go amiss.’

Jackie looked as though she was about to slap the Doctor, and probably would have if Leah hadn’t been standing there. So instead she simply shot him a singeing look and left out of the door to make tea.

* * *

When the Doctor woke up, everything was a bit more blurry and colourful than it normally was. He groaned on impulse, and immediately felt a hand resting on his face. He looked up on instinct and saw Jack was holding him. They were no longer in the cell.

_ Okay? _

‘Yeah,’ he muttered, attempting to sit up, but his limbs were mostly useless and he ended up falling back onto Jack who obediently held him. That shouldn’t have happened.

‘You all right?’ Jack asked seriously.

‘Think I got the barbiturate quantity wrong,’ the Doctor said quietly.

‘No kidding. Let it do its work,’ Jack advised.

‘Doctor, are you okay?’ It was Seth, the Doctor realised, sitting at the Time Lord’s feet.

‘M’fine,’ the Doctor replied, resigning to remain in Jack’s grip for the moment. ‘Where are we?’

‘We’re in transit, on the move,’ Jack answered. ‘Only about a hundred metres so far, I don’t think we’re out of the grounds yet.’

The Doctor quickly did a mental calculation. ‘We’re going east. That’s good.’ He looked back up at Seth. The boy was looking a bit resigned. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’m okay,’ Seth muttered unconvincingly.

The Doctor guessed his mood. He was instrumental in the escape plan and starting to realise that. ‘You’ll be fine. Me and Jack’ll do the hard bit.’

Seth didn’t reply for a moment.

‘What?’ the Doctor asked.

‘I’m scared,’ Seth muttered.

The Doctor considered him for a moment. ‘How old are you, Seth?’

‘Fourteen.’

_ Fourteen? He’s a kid! How can they do this to a kid!? _

The Doctor nodded to acknowledge her. ‘Human?’ he wondered aloud next.

‘Yeah.’

‘How did you get here?’

‘My brother says we were refugees from Titan. The war there killed our parents and we had to get out. There was a refugee ship from Miranda that my brother got us onto, but there were pirates and we got taken to Sirrus. We escaped to the underground but I was hurt, so my brother found a clinic. The doctor, Doctor Pi’cho, wanted an apprentice so my brother took it up. Doctor Pi’cho died last year though, so my brother took over his clinic. But last week we were low on supplies, I had to go overground, but I went too far. The poachers got me.’

‘How long have you been on Sirrus?’

‘Since I was four.’

_ Oh my god. _

‘What’s your brother’s name?’ the Doctor asked next.

‘Elliott.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Well we’re getting back to Elliott, so don’t worry about that. Just lead the way and me and Jack’ll make sure everyone’s okay, you included.’

Seth smiled a little.

‘There we go,’ the Doctor encouraged, and looked around at the rest of the slaves who were all staring at him. He did another mental calculation. They were likely to hit the five mile point in the next twenty minutes. ‘When we reach five miles, me and Jack will unlock the doors. Let Seth go first and follow him. Run as fast as you can without putting too much stress on your necks. Help everyone who needs help along the way. If we’re seen we’ll get shot at, but hopefully if we’re quick enough I won’t have to come up with a plan B.’

‘What about you, Doctor?’ Gnola asked.

‘Don’t worry about me,’ the Doctor replied.

‘But your manacles, you can’t run,’ another slave pointed out.

‘I’ll be fine,’ the Doctor insisted. ‘Just worry about each other.’

They all fell silent, not looking too convinced, but the mood had lightened somewhat. Some people even started to chat a little.

_ They have a point. How are you actually gonna run? _

‘With a lot of enthusiasm,’ the Doctor muttered to her, before glancing up at Jack. By the expression on his face the Doctor could tell he was thinking exactly the same thing. 

‘I’ll carry you,’ Jack told him firmly.

‘No, you’ll be up the front making sure Seth is okay,’ the Doctor replied, finally able to sit up and bend his legs to get some circulation going.

‘Are you kidding? You’ll never outrun anyone with those on,’ Jack said, indicating the manacles. ‘I’m picking you up and running with you.’

‘I’ll be at the back to help anyone who’s in danger.’

‘Let me do that.’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘I won’t be able to keep up with Seth.’

Jack sighed a heavy, breathy sigh. Clearly he realised he wasn’t going to get anywhere. ‘You’re an absolute pain in the ass sometimes, you know that?’

The Doctor grinned. ‘It’ll be okay.’

Suddenly the lorry stopped. The slaves immediately quietened, a wave of panic washing across them.

_ What’s that!? _

‘It’s okay, it’s the gate check,’ the Doctor said quickly to everyone. ‘Just a few seconds and we’ll be out.’

There was a loud clunk, and the back of the lorry opened. The Doctor only just caught a glimpse of Spleen’s brother standing there before he instinctively ducked, taking Jack down with him. Several slaves shifted closer to them, shielding them from view. The Doctor managed to get a position on his front, seeing a slice of Spleen’s brother through a gap. The draconian looked even more threatening in the low light of 3am.

Spleen’s brother stepped up into the lorry, panning his gun across the slaves in a cool fashion who all shrank back in fear. He moved slowly and deliberately, pacing around the lorry. The crowd just parted for him as he took his time to inspect each and every potential slave.

_ He’s getting closer! _

With a sinking feeling, the Doctor realised that Spleen was going to see him and Jack. Jack had obviously realised this too as he grabbed the Doctor’s arm, squeezing it. 

Spleen’s brother moved closer. So close in fact, the Doctor had to duck his head to make sure the draconian wouldn’t see him through the gap. But he was pushing apart the crowd, getting closer and closer ...

The Doctor tried to fathom an escape route, but there was no room for manoeuvre, as everyone was packed like sardines. But suddenly his leg was grabbed and he was pulled back along the floor, deeper into the crowd of slaves. He didn’t fight it, letting whoever was dragging him to burrow him further into the crowd, Jack receiving the same treatment beside him. In the dead, tense silence, the chink of his manacles deafened him, but Spleen’s brother didn’t seem to notice. The Doctor then found himself lying up against the wall, a barrier of legs hiding him. But he could see the draconian’s feet, moving ever closer.

_ No, not now, please not now … _

The draconian’s feet suddenly stopped, and turned away.

‘Her,’ he said.

_ Who? What’s he doin’? _

There was a squeal of panic from one of the female slaves, and heavy boots arrived. It was easy to discern from the following sounds that she was being dragged off of the lorry.

‘Him.’

A male, this time, again dragged off the lorry. Spleen’s brother signalled off a handful more who were all taken out.

‘And … this one, I think,’ Spleen’s brother completed.

‘No, what are you doing? Why me?’ a voice cried. The Doctor recognised it. That was Gnola. Why were they being taken off?

‘Shut up,’ Spleen’s brother retorted. ‘Move or I’ll shoot you.’

Gnola whimpered, utterly terrified, before the heavy boots of the guards returned to take her off.

‘There, that should keep her clientele happy for a week,’ Spleen brother said jokingly to someone out of the lorry. A female laughed.

Immediately the Doctor realised that the slaves were being escorted off to go into the female draconian’s business - the very one he’d nearly become a part of.

His blood boiled.

_ No. Don’t move. Don’t do anythin’. _

He ignored her, shifting ready to jump out of his hiding place to save Gnola.

_ Don’t you dare! Don’t move! DON’T MOVE. You can't save them! _

The Doctor pulled up his legs.

_ NO! Don’t do it! Don’t you dare do it! You can’t do anythin’ to help them! Stay still! STAY STILL! _

The Doctor suddenly found himself frozen, unable to move. He could only lie there, watching as Spleen’s brother took one last look around the lorry.

_ Don’t move, don’t let him see you! _

Finally Spleen’s brother turned, and left out of the lorry. The doors were closed and bolted behind him.

Then the Doctor could move. He pushed himself up and out of the crowd, stumbling to the back doors. ‘Gnola!’ he shouted, banging his fist on the metal, but his cries were lost in the revs of the engine pulling away. As they began to move, the Doctor slid weakly to the floor, head in his hands.

_ You can’t save everyone . I’m so sorry. _

Jack dropped to sit next to the Time Lord, a hand on his arm. ‘We’ll go back for them,’ he told him.

‘They’re gone,’ the Doctor muttered to the floor. ‘That type of slavery; they won’t last a week.’

_ You couldn’t. I’m so sorry. _

The Doctor just nodded. He knew she was right. Of  _ course  _ she was right. Not that it made him feel any better. Those people, Gnola included, were going to die in humiliation and agony and there was very little he could do about it.

Sirrus, he thought bitterly. This was Sirrus. This was normality here. Even if he did manage to save all these slaves and save Gnola and the other people taken by Spleen’s brother, there’d be another load in their place in six hours. The cycle was never-ending. It kept going. A never-ending spiral of misery and death descending deeper in hell with every moment. Pirates would bring people to Sirrus in the morning, then poachers would take whatever lifeforms they could from the overground at noon, clamp them in chains in the afternoon and send them out in the evening, just before the pirates woke up to head back out in the morning.

He decided that when he had a spare ten minutes, he was going to deal with this pitiable, putrid, pathetic little planet once and for all. But he had things to do first. He did a quick mental calculation. 

They were heading east at a steady rate. It would be fifteen minutes until they reached five miles.


	23. An Almost Flawless Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Jack make their escape with the slaves, but not quite as planned.

The lorry hit five miles, and the Doctor finally got up. He gestured for Jack to join him and pointed up at the roof of the moving lorry where a strip of metal was slightly broken off of the structure.

‘Think you can get that off?’ he asked the immortal.

Jack nodded, and accepted a lift up from the Time Lord. He grabbed the edge of the metal and carefully began to yank it. Centimetre by centimetre it came away, the sharp edge cutting slightly into his fingers, not that he particularly cared. After a few minutes of tugging the small sheet came away and he dropped to the ground, his bloody hands already healed. He handed the metal to the Doctor, who carefully slid it between the doors of the lorry and began to jiggle it slightly. Jack just watched, until eventually the Doctor pulled back the sheet and dropped it to the floor. He then reached up and tapped the back door. It opened to the outside world.

There was a united gasp from all of the slaves, and excited chattering. The Doctor peeked his head out of the open door slightly to the rolling road beneath, before looking back at Jack and the slaves. ‘Okay, when I give the signal, we run. Seth, make sure you’re at the front with Jack.’ 

The boy obliged, moving to stand next to Jack. He was shaking slightly, Jack noticed.

‘The most important thing is don’t panic,’ the Doctor continued, utterly serious. ‘If they start shooting at us, don’t scatter. Keep following Jack and Seth. I will deal with anyone following us. If you panic and scatter, it will be easier for them to pick us off. Just keep running as fast as you can without hurting your necks, and help each other all you can. Don’t step on each other trying to get away. It won’t happen any faster.’

The slaves gave a series of affirmations.

‘Okay,’ the Doctor muttered, and looked at Jack. ‘Ready?’

Jack nodded. ‘Let’s do it.’

The Doctor looked at Seth and gestured out at the landscape. ‘Orientate yourself. Know where you are?’

‘Y-yeah,’ Seth said after a moment.

The lorry stopped, obviously hovering at a junction. The Doctor stepped back, and gestured. Jack took Seth’s arm, and together they jumped out the back of the lorry.

* * *

The Doctor pressed himself against the wall, gesturing for everyone to follow Jack and Seth. They did, as orderly and patiently as he’d told them to be, helping each other descend to the ground. Soon it was only a handful of the weaker ones left.

‘C’mon, with me,’ the Doctor encouraged them, holding out his arms. They all held onto him, looking petrified as he moved them towards the door and carefully got down, helping them all he could. Some were older and frailer, some had been badly abused by the guards, and some were disabled. But he wasn’t going to leave anyone behind.

Then they were moving across the road. It was dead at 3am, but the urgency of having to get out of sight was making the Doctor step a little faster. Though it quickly became apparent that some of them could barely walk, let alone run. So he kept a slow but constant pace, repeatedly encouraging and reassuring them.

They reached the woods without a hitch, fifty metres behind the back end of the other departing slaves. The Doctor knew it was too good to be true when he suddenly heard a shout of alarm from the road.

‘They’re all out!’

‘Shoot ‘em! Just shoot ‘em!’ It was the slavers and the driver.

The Doctor kept calm. ‘C’mon, keep going, that’s it, nice and steady,’ he told his group.

‘No, I can’t,’ one of the aliens said, almost in tears. He was one of the ones who’d been thoroughly abused by the guards, lacerations and blood over his body. He could barely walk.

‘Of course you can, Elso,’ the Doctor said quickly, smiling at him. ‘Don’t worry about them, just keep going.’

‘No,’ an older lady said, clearly struggling badly. ‘Run, Doctor, leave me, you have to escape.’

‘Me too, leave me here,’ another one said - one who was leaning on the Doctor heavily who had no right leg.

‘I’m not leaving anyone,’ the Doctor replied firmly. ‘We’re all getting out of this, I promise you. Geropa, Tc’bai, listen to me. We’re going to escape, all of us. Just keep going.’

There were running footsteps now. As the crowd of the slaves in front of them filtered away, the Doctor realised that despite his apparent positivity, they  _ were  _ going to be caught. He checked over his shoulder - the slavers were still on the road but moving in fast, struggling to see through the trees in the darkness.

_ Hide. Just hide! There are some bushes there! _

Good idea, the Doctor concurred with Rose. He stopped and turned.

‘Let’s hide, this way,’ he said calmly and moved into the thicket. He helped them all to stoop down in among the foliage. ‘Now don’t move, don’t make a noise,’ he whispered.

They all obeyed, though they were utterly paralysed by fear anyway. The Doctor kept checking them as he watched the slavers run towards them, constantly searching the thicket. They were going to find them, and they were going to find the large group up ahead. He needed a distraction.

He looked around the ground, trying to find something he could use. They were next to the alien equivalent of a pine tree, and there were loads of alien pine nuts scattered all over the floor. 

The slavers finally reached where they were hiding, constantly scanning the thicket. The Doctor took a heavy alien pine nut in hand, its feelers immediately creeping out to feel his hand and to attach itself. He quickly weighed it up, making a mathematical calculation before pulling back his arm, and throwing it over the slaver’s head to the opposite pine tree before it could latch to his hand. The clunk was loud, making the slavers spin around to the source of the noise.

‘Come out!’ one of the slavers screamed. He was clearly panicking. That was good. They were more likely to make mistakes.

He threw another one, this time for the slaver’s hood. The alien pine nut almost immediately launched out its feelers, and seconds later latched onto the back of the slaver’s head. The slaver shrieked and started waving his arms as the feelers continued to grow bigger, clinging itself to his face.

‘Get it off, get it off!’ the slaver cried.

He threw another one, this time ricocheting off of the far tree and smacking one of them in the arm.

‘What the … Come out, now!’ the slaver screamed, pointing his gun in all manner of directions. 

Rose was laughing in his head. He could hear the slaves around him sniggering slightly. He threw another. It ended out on the floor next to another slaver’s feet, and attached itself to his ankle.

‘What the hell is going on!?’ one of the slavers shouted, alarmed. All but one of them were preoccupied now, so the Doctor threw a last alien pine nut to ensnare him. It worked. Soon all of the slavers were flailing around, panicking.

The Doctor quickly got up, helping the rest of the group up as they started off in the opposite direction. He kept glancing behind him to check for the slavers, but they were still distracted. Quite soon the darkness obscured them, and the Doctor relaxed slightly. 

He stopped again. Everyone stopped with him.

‘You all go on, I need to make sure they’re not going to follow,’ the Doctor told them.

‘But …’ one began.

‘No buts,’ the Doctor interrupted firmly. ‘I’ll be absolutely fine. Now go. Help each other. Go that way.’ He pointed across the landscape where he could see lots of foliage had been trampled. He then turned and left back in the opposite direction towards the slavers, using cover.

The slavers were only just recovering from their pine nut assault, and were starting to look in the direction the massive crowd had gone. He moved around the perimeter to be in a false position, before purposely making himself visible. He caught the eye of one of them, who shrieked and pointed. The Doctor looked suitably scared, shouting, ‘wait for me!’ to his imaginary crowd, and ran.

He must have looked somewhat comical, traipsing through the dirt in a fast shuffle, trying desperately not to take too much of stride or catch the chain of his manacles on a rock, which would no doubt bring him falling flat to his face. His pursuers were catching up to him even faster than they thought they would.

Someone took a shot. Rose shrieked in alarm. He wasn’t sure what plan he’d been trying to implement when he’d started this, but getting shot was definitely not part of it. Several shots glanced him by as another few slavers joined in the fray.

He kept going, struggling across terrain that would baffle the most active of trekkers. He could hear the crash of water so he went straight towards it, a vague notion forming in his head to use the noise in order to make an escape. Quite soon he came into view of a large set of continuing waterfalls, and he found as another shot was fired that he could do nothing but head straight into the water. He couldn’t run, but he had enough give in his manacles to just about swim. 

_ No, don’t, the water’s … _

Highly viscous, the Doctor mentally completed as suddenly the water smashed into his legs with a brutal and astonishing amount of force. They were swept out from beneath him and he crashed in the water sideways in a yell of surprise.

_ You idiot! _

Then he was being thrown around; underwater, then out of it, then back under, then out of it. In the brief seconds he was above the surface he could hear shots, but that hardly mattered as he was being dragged down stream, to the next waterfall drop that awaited him. 

_ Find something to hold! _

He desperately tried to find something to hold onto, but the rocks under the water passed him by. He reached the top of the fall, and was promptly washed over. 

_ No! _

He didn’t quite know how he managed to stay conscious as he hit the bottom, plunging far enough to smack into the water bottom. He rose to the surface again, then under, and then above, still struggling. Shots were still being fired but he was moving too fast for them to be at all accurate. Pretty soon he reached the next drop, and was washed right over.

He hit the water bottom again, Rose screaming inside his head. He finally found a rock to cling onto, but the water was so ferocious and his grip so useless that he was almost immediately swept away again. As the next drop came into view, he realised that the sheer height of it meant that he wasn’t going to survive this.

He came up above the surface again, then below, then above once more, flailing desperately. He tried a last ditch attempt to gain some sort of purchase on something,  _ anything.  _ But as the edge of the thirty-foot fall loomed large he already knew it was too late.

‘Rose!’ he gasped out loud. ‘I’m sorry!’

_ I love you! _

He was swept over the edge.

* * *

Jack and the slaves had finally reached the entrance to the underground - a trapdoor secreted near a derelict farmhouse. Jack got everyone inside, directing Seth to take them to the clinic. He counted heads as they entered. Forty-one. There were missing six, including the Doctor.

Jack took the arm of one of the last slaves entering the underground. ‘Tell Seth I’m going to get the last people,’ he explained, and ran across the road and straight back into the forest. He met a group of the last slaves heading out, all supporting each other.

‘Jack!’ one cried, pointing behind them. ‘The Doctor!’

‘Where is he!?’

‘He went to distract them, there were shots!’

Jack nodded furiously and pointed to the derelict building. ‘Over there, go!’ he ordered, pulling out his gun as he made his way back into the forest. He could hear the slavers in the distance, and he did his best to stay quiet but move quickly, back to where the lorry was. But the voices were coming from a different direction. He followed them through more forest until he found himself bottom at a set of beautiful waterfalls. The slavers were standing on the edge of the pool, looking down into it.

‘Is it dead?’ one of the slavers asked.

‘Looks like it,’ another one responded.

‘Who cares, it ain’t even got a choker on!’ a third one pointed out. ‘We’ve gotta find the others!’

They ran off, back into the forest. Jack shrank back to avoid being seen, and then waited ten seconds until he dared to move out and go straight to the pool.

There was a figure face down in the water being pushed towards the bank, utterly motionless. 

By the time Jack figured out what was going on, the body had drifted to the edge. The hair and clothes gave it away.

Jack swore and jumped over the side, grabbing the Doctor under the arms. He struggled with the weight of him with added water, but eventually managed to get him onto the bank. He was soaked through, bloody, and slightly tinged gold.

‘No, no, no, don’t you dare!’ Jack cried, checking his airway. He wasn’t breathing. He checked his pulse next, just in case his bypass was on. Nothing. Then his hearts to be sure. Still nothing. The golden light was intensifying.

Jack immediately started rescue breaths, forcing air into the Time Lord’s lungs five times before starting chest compressions. He kept going for a good minute, then tried the rescue breaths again.

‘C’mon!’ Jack yelled at him, compressing again until finally the Doctor moved, took in a gasp of air and began to cough up half of the Thames. Jack turned him to hold him on his front, pure relief flooding him as he held him carefully.

‘I c-can’t …’ the Doctor choked out.

‘You nearly died!’ Jack said quickly, brushing back his best friends wet hair from his face. ‘Do you freakin’ fall off that cliff or something?’

‘J-Jack,’ the Doctor stammered, staring up at him with wide, terrified eyes.

‘What?’ Jack asked, confused.

‘I’m … Where is he!?’ the Doctor cried out, his eyes watering.

‘What?’

‘He’s gone!’ the Doctor told him.

Jack frowned. ‘What are you …’

‘Where did he go!?’ the Doctor begged to know.

‘Where did who go?’

‘The Doctor!’ the Doctor shouted.

‘What?’

‘I’m talking outta his mouth! I can move him!’ the Doctor’s body told him desperately. 

Jack realised almost immediately, and his jaw dropped. ‘... Rose?’

‘Yeah!’ the Doctor’s body replied, in tears now. ‘Where did he go? He’s gone! We’ve gotta do somethin’, Jack!’

The Doctor’s body attempted to get up, but it caused a shriek of pain.

‘Okay, hold on, relax!’ Jack said quickly, checking the perimeter in case of slavers, but they were alone. ‘The Doctor’s body’s been hurt, We need to get to safety. I’ll run with you to the underground and we’ll sort this out then, okay?’

‘But Jack he-’

‘Okay!?’ Jack interrupted.

The Doctor’s body - or was it Rose now? - seemed to stop itself from panicking, taking deep breaths.

‘Okay,’ she said.

Perhaps it was too late, Jack thought. Rose had - somehow - become the dominant psyche in the Doctor’s body.

He tried not to think about it as he nodded, scooped up the body carefully, and began to run.


	24. Who's Conscious?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deep in the underground of Sirrus, they realise the magnitude of the situation with Rose conscious and controlling the Doctor's body.

After the initial shock of being able to control and speak out of the Doctor, Rose had realised that actually, the Doctor’s body had been quite hurt by the thirty foot drop into the highly viscous pool of water. She couldn’t really feel any pain, just tingles; like the needles and pins she usually felt when the Doctor was hurt. By this, she could only determine that the Doctor had  _ seriously _ hurt himself.

Jack had ran with her out of the forest, across a field and to some burnt out farmhouse. He’d gone around the side and into a well-secreted entrance, where several people were waiting.

‘Are you the last ones?’ an alien asked Jack as they entered.

‘Yeah.’

‘Fire in the hole!’ somebody nearby yelled, and Jack was pulled to cover as a few seconds later the tunnel exploded, the mud caving in the block off the entrance. He stood up again, checking the body in his arms.

‘Okay?’ he asked.

‘Yeah,’ Rose replied out of the Doctor's mouth. 

Jack grunted, repositioning her. ‘He’s heavier than he looks.’

‘Just get him help,’ Rose begged.

‘Do you need the clinic?’ the alien who had spoken before asked Jack, looking at the body in his arms.

‘Yeah, please.’...

‘That way, a hundred metres,’ the alien told him, pointing up one of the tunnels.

‘Thanks,’ Jack replied, and he was off.

The underground was clearly a structure that had been there for some time. The walls were concrete, the light coming from flame torches at intervals, with many tunnels leading off in different directions. It was like a rabbit warren for people, many species of all ages and genders moving around the structures. After the hell of the Sirrus overground, it seemed a little more safe and sheltered, and for the first time in a long while, Rose found herself able to relax.

They arrived outside what she assumed to be the clinic, where all the ex-slaves were sat outside, the atmosphere quite jovial at the reality that they had managed to escape. Seth was there, standing next to another black-haired humanoid, who couldn’t have been over twenty-five. It had to be his brother, Elliott.

‘Remember, you’re the Doctor,’ Jack muttered. Rose didn’t have time to ask him what the hell he meant before Seth and Elliott reached them.

‘What happened?’ Seth asked anxiously.

‘Doctor, are you okay?’ one of the slaves she remembered as Chay’to asked, desperate. Immediately all of the slaves silenced, tensing.

She was about to reply as herself, to explain that the Doctor was gone, but then realised abruptly what Jack had meant. She was the Doctor. She’d seen through his eyes what sort of hope he gave to these people. If they discovered that he was gone and in his place was a human woman who hadn’t even finished school properly and barely knew what E equals MC squared actually meant, they were going to lose a massive part of their hope.

She had to pretend to be him.

She smiled and put on her best estuary accent. ‘I’m fine, yeah? Absolutely, um…’ she frowned a little, venturing for a Doctor-like word, ‘... peachy. Molto bene,’ she added, for good effect.

‘But you’re hurt,’ one of them said.

‘Yeah, took a plunge,’ she continued, still smiling. ‘But he’s … I mean,  _ I’m _ fine.’

She winced a little, but they seemed to accept that. She realised very quickly it had been the right thing to do when they all smiled in return; the happy atmosphere restored. 

Jack readjusted her again and the unpleasant tingle moved up her back.

‘Jack, I think he’s …  _ I’ve _ hurt my back,’ Rose said quickly.

‘Lay him down,’ Elliott said quickly, and Jack obliged. More tingles shot up through her spine.

The people around them looked alarmed again. Rose felt their trepidation. Damage to the spine wasn’t good in any species. 

‘Seth, get something to carry him on,’ Elliott said, and Seth immediately left into the clinic. ‘What happened?’

‘He … I was trying to distract the slavers, I ran into water and it dragged me down loads of waterfalls,’ Rose replied, maintaining her estuary accent. ‘Into a pool of water, feet first.’

‘Smart,’ Elliott said, examining her eyes. ‘Head first would’ve split your skull open. Though I’m surprised you didn’t snap in two. Time Lord thing?’

‘Um, yeah.’

‘When I found him he’d stopped breathing, I think he drowned,’ Jack added.

Elliott nodded, just as Seth returned, holding a bodyboard. Together the three lifted her onto it, making sure to keep her spine aligned. The ex-slaves obediently cleared the path, allowing the three to lift her up and take her through the tunnels into the makeshift clinic. She didn’t dare to move her neck, but she could see quite a lot of the clinic. There were people in various states of disrepair in beds, hooked up to machines that were all quite sophisticated pieces of machinery. They continued through the clinic to a side room, where she was shifted onto a bed and the door was closed.

They wasted no time in getting her shoes, socks and trousers off and attached to some monitors. The tingles were becoming far more intense now, indicating to her that the pain was getting worse as they moved the Doctor’s body around. She let out a groan, more out the discomfort of the tingles than anything else. But hearing the Doctor moan in her ears, even if it was her making them, unsettled her 

‘Looks like dislocations and internal bleeding,’ Elliott muttered.

‘We need to get the manacles off, they’re cutting into the swelling,’ Jack inputted.

‘I’ll get some tools,’ Seth said helpfully, and disappeared out of the door.

Rose purposely closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see it, although there was little danger of that as she was lying completely flat in order not to aggravate his spine. Seth got back with some metal cutters and a couple of bone-jolting thunks later and the manacles were finally on the floor, out of view. It was then Elliott began to ask her questions, about pain or numbness, but she could only answer according to how violent the tingles were becoming.

‘Okay, we won’t need any surgery,’ Elliott finally concluded, checking the ice packs on her freshly-casted legs. ’The internal bleeding’s stopping, the swelling hasn’t gone down so I can’t reset the bones yet. Just try not to move and keep your legs elevated.’

‘Okay,’ Rose said, wincing as more tingles shot up through her legs and back. 

‘I want a full body scan but the power reserves are on downtime at the moment.’

‘That’s okay,’ Jack replied. ‘Have you got something that can monitor brain waves?’ 

‘Yes … Why?’

‘I’ve got a theory I wanna test.’

‘Okay.’ Elliott nodded, and ran out of the door.

‘I’m gonna be fine?’ Rose asked quickly, looking at Jack.

‘Yes,’ Jack told her, but Rose noticed Seth looking at her strangely.

‘What?’ she asked the teenager.

‘You’re not the Doctor,’ Seth muttered.

Rose glanced at Jack. ‘Yeah, of course I am.’

That seemed to confirm his theory somehow as suddenly he tensed. ‘What have you done with him?’ he asked quickly, defensive. ‘Are you a shapeshifter!?’

Rose could see this taking a turn for the worse. ‘No, really, I’m …’

‘Seth, this is Rose, the Doctor’s wife,’ Jack interrupted, hand on her arm to stop her.

Seth blinked, surprised. ‘What?’

‘Yeah … Look, this is why we came to Sirrus. Rose’s mind is … well,  _ was _ trapped inside his,’ Jack told Seth. ‘She’s in his head, but after he fell she’s controlling him now.’

‘Oh,’ Seth muttered, staring at Rose with wide eyes. ‘That’s so weird. When is he coming back?’

‘We have no idea,’ Jack confessed. ‘We don’t know what the hell is going on. But you can’t tell anyone.’

Seth nodded almost immediately. ‘Yeah, I get it.’

Elliott returned pushing a machine of some kind. Rose allowed him to link her up to it and he powered up. It made a noise a bit like tap shoes, clearly very old and well-used. Elliott examined it for a few moments intently.

‘Well, that’s odd,’ Elliott muttered.

‘What?’ Rose asked.

‘The brainwaves are in delta. Apparently you’re unconscious at the moment.’

‘But he's …  _ I’m _ speakin’, thinkin’ and movin’ around. That’s not possible,’ Rose muttered, her eyes wide.

‘It must be broken,’ Elliott said, tapping at some buttons.

‘I think …’ Jack mused, scratching his head and glancing at Elliott. He paused, and then started again.  ‘Elliott, this isn’t the Doctor.’

Elliott frowned at him ‘What?’

‘Something happened, and his wife, Rose, got stuck in his head. Now she’s woken up and he’s gone. That’s why I wanted to measure his brainwaves.’

‘How …’ Elliott began, but then stopped, took a moment, and obviously was smart enough to realise that questioning it wouldn’t get him many answers. ‘So Rose is in his head?’ he tried instead.

‘I’ve been talkin’ to him in his head, but after he fell I can control him,’ Rose explained. 

‘What happened when the Doctor went to sleep, or got knocked out? I mean, were you still awake?’ Jack asked.

‘Sometimes,’ she replied. ‘I was at the start but then it stopped happenin’.’

Jack nodded at that. ‘Okay. It’s just a theory, but you remember I told the Doctor in New Shada that after he was knocked out, he woke up and started talking like he wasn’t there to me?’

‘Yeah …?’ Rose asked.

‘What if that was you?’

‘But I don’t remember that.’

‘Maybe that was your subconscious. Has he been sleepwalking?’

Rose frowned. ‘Yeah …’

‘What did he do?’

‘Mum said he was sitting at my makeup desk brushing hair he didn’t have…’ Rose said out loud, realising what that meant as she said it. ‘I did that every mornin’...’

‘That’s you, that’s your routine,’ Jack pointed out. ‘You were subconsciously moving him while he was asleep in your normal activities. But now, I think something’s happened, like his brain has become so used to you or something that it’s letting you control him when he’s unconscious. The Doctor’s still knocked out from that fall. You’re just using his body as a vehicle.’

‘Oh my god,’ Rose muttered, her eyes wide. ‘So when he wakes up he’ll come back?’

‘... Hopefully.’

‘... We’ve gotta get me out,’ Rose croaked.

Jack nodded. ‘We need to find this Geranda before it’s too late.’

Elliott suddenly spoke up. ‘You need Geranda?’

‘Do you know her?’ Jack asked quickly.

‘She’s in the overcity, in Braz Tor. She’s a psychic ... kinda,’ Seth chipped in. 

‘But you can’t. It’ll be really dangerous. The Va'A'gnorns keep her paid up to give them good omens. She’s part of their circle,’ Elliott said.

‘Oh god,’ Rose moaned, and found herself running her hand through the Doctor’s hair as he usually did in moments of high stress. It was quite pleasing. She realised why he did it so often, now. ‘I can’t watch this for much longer, Jack.’

‘I know,’ Jack replied. ‘But we don’t have a choice. We’ve gotta get you out or we might lose the Doctor forever.’

Rose nodded. ‘I know. How long until we can go?’

Jack looked at Elliott, who winced. ‘Look, I dunno the recovery rate of a Time Lord but in humanoids these kinds of injuries I wouldn’t feel happy with anyone exerting pressure for at least a few days,’ the young doctor said.

‘That’s too long,’ Rose moaned.

‘Hey,’ Jack said quickly, still holding her hand. ‘He’s a Time Lord, newly regenerated, young and fit. He’ll be fine.’

‘That’s still ages!’ Rose pointed out. 

‘It’s taken us over a month to get to this point,’ Jack replied calmly. ‘But he’ll know. When he wakes up he can tell us. He’ll work it out.’

Rose ran her hand through her hair again. ‘Okay.’

‘Hey, the brainwaves changed,’ Elliott said quickly. Everyone looked.

‘They’re in theta. He’s dreaming,’ Jack said. ‘He should wake up soon.’ He looked at Elliott and Seth. ‘We need to get those collars off of the people outside.’

‘How?’ Elliott asked seriously. ‘If I do anything I might paralyse them. I’ve never taken a slave collar off before.’

Jack sighed. ‘Okay. We need the Doctor. But the collars will have location trackers; all of them.’

‘No, they won’t work,’ Seth suddenly said. ‘The transmitters don’t signal underground. They’ll probably try and get in but we’re well-protected.’

Jack thought some more, looked at Rose, and then back at Elliott and Seth. ‘We’ll have to tell you how to remove the collars, then me and Doctor’ll do a runner.’

‘You can’t,’ Seth said quickly, anxious. ‘His legs.’

‘I’ll find a way.’

‘But …’

‘Believe me, if the Doctor’s down here, they’ll get in, and you’ll all be caught in the crossfire,’ Jack replied evenly. ‘We’ll have to keep moving; away from you.’

‘No,’ Seth said firmly, straightening up a little. ‘We’ll protect you, until the Doctor’s ready.’

‘Seth …’

‘He’s not gonna get anywhere with the state he’s in,’ Seth stated. ‘We’ll buy you time. Just stay here until he’s ready to go, please.’

‘I’ll look after him.’

‘No,’ Seth stated firmly.

Jack sighed heavily, looking at Elliott. ‘Is he still in theta brainwaves?’

Elliott checked. ‘Yeah.’

Suddenly Rose’s right arm spasmed. Then her leg. Then her back arched, and she let out a scream that wasn’t her own.

Jack looked at her, alarmed. ‘Rose!? What…’

‘It’s his body! I’m not doing anythin’!’ she gasped out. The Doctor’s body was jerking, his arms flailing as though trying to fight off an invisible foe and crying out of his own accord.

‘Rose, I told you that he was dreaming,’ Jack said quickly, pinning her down by her shoulders to stop her from jerking too hard and damaging his spine further. ‘But I think he’s just gone into a nightmare.’

Rose thought quickly. ‘Hold him tight and run your hand through his hair!’

Jack frowned. ‘What?’

‘I do that when he has a nightmare, he calms down!’

Jack didn’t ask questions, he just did it. He continued to hold him as Rose had suggested. She’d stopped talking now, but the Doctor wasn’t awake either. As the Doctor’s movements slowed and he stopped crying out Jack kept holding him, making sure until he relaxed once more.

‘Rose?’ Jack tried, but she didn’t answer.

‘What happened?’ Seth asked, his voice barely above a whisper. ‘Where’s Rose? Is she okay?’

‘I think the Doctor’s become dominant again,’ Jack murmured, finally letting go. ‘Doctor? Rose?’ he tried, but of course got no answer. ‘We’ll have to wait until he wakes up.’

‘He can stay in here,’ Elliott said. ‘But what do we do about all the ex-slaves?’

‘Just keep them there until the Doctor can tell us what to do,’ Jack reasoned.

Elliott nodded. ‘I need to do my rounds. I’ll be back in ten minutes. Will you be okay?’

‘Yeah,’ Jack answered. 

‘Just shout if anything happens. Seth, you coming?’ he directed to his brother.

Seth nodded. He gazed lingered on Jack momentarily, before he left out of the door.

Jack sighed as the door closed, looking back at the Doctor. He tried calling him or Rose again, but once more, nothing came back. So he sat down in a nearby chair, pulled up his hand, and activated the communication device secreted in his palm.

‘Braxiatel? Are you there?’

A brief pause.

_ ‘Jack? How is he?’ _

Jack looked at the Doctor lying there unconscious with a broken back, and his legs and feet in casts covered with ice packs. ‘Yeah, he’s fine,’ Jack replied. ‘Alex?’

_ ‘He’s going to be okay. I found the Doctor in the future and he’s treating him. He’s getting better.’ _

‘You found the Doctor in the future?’

_ ‘Yes. You said find someone I trusted so I did.’ _

‘So I don’t have to worry about Alex anymore?’

_ ‘No. What are you doing now?’ _

‘We’re about to head to the over city to find this Geranda woman. Some place called Braz Tor.’

There was a long pause before Brax replied.  _ ‘Braz Tor?’ _

‘Yeah.’ Jack paused, noting the sudden change in Brax’s voice. ‘I take it you’ve been there.’

_ ‘I knew someone,’  _ Brax replied dismissively. ‘ _ Are we still meeting at the rendezvous?’ _

‘Yes.’

_ ‘See you then,’ _ Brax said, and hung up.

Jack turned off the communicator, and for a moment just stared at the wall, relieved. Now they just had to find Geranda and get the hell off of the planet.


	25. Going Underground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Doctor recovers from the fall, he helps Elliott and Seth to remove the slave collars and plans their next move.

The Doctor opened his eyes, and found himself lying in a bed in a small, tidy, white room. It was empty of people, but he was connected to some machines that were periodically beeping. He instinctively tried to move, but was quickly reminded of falling thirty feet as pain shot through his legs, and he abruptly stopped himself with a muted yelp. 

He unconsciously waited for Rose to chastise him, but there was nothing inside his head but silence.

‘Rose?’ he asked. 

Nothing.

‘Rose? Are you there?’

Nothing.

Was she gone? Had something happened?

He tried not to panic as that would hardly be productive; instead examining himself over whilst allowing endorphins to rush through his body to take the edge off of the pain. His legs were in casts, he was fixed in a back brace and his head was pounding with a savage headache. He could only figure he was in the clinic, and Jack was somewhere around.

Just as he thought about Jack, the door opened to reveal the immortal standing there holding two mugs. He grinned at the Doctor.

‘Thought I heard your strangled yells of pain,’ Jack said, moving to put the mug on the table next to the Time Lord. ‘Am I talking to Rose or the Doctor?’

‘The Doctor. Is that optional?’ the Doctor asked, taking the mug. He was delighted to find it was tea, and drank it despite it being piping hot. Jack nodded and explained what had happened, the Doctor listening patiently.

‘I think she’s beginning to become an equal consciousness,’ the Doctor mused as Jack finished. ‘When I switch off, she switches on, and vice versa. That might explain why I can’t hear her at the moment.’

‘You can’t hear her?’

The Doctor shook his head, which angered his headache, so he stopped quickly.

‘But she’s okay?’

‘I don’t know,’ the Doctor confessed. ‘You’ll just have to find out when I go to sleep. If I’m right, she should wake up when I sleep.’

‘And if she doesn’t?’

‘Then we’ll have a serious problem.’

‘No kidding. But where does it stop?’ Jack asked nervously. ‘What if she starts to dominate you? What’ll happen to you?’

‘I’m hoping we’ll never find out,’ the Doctor muttered. 

There was a long pause between them as they both considered that.

‘Look, try not to think about it,’ Jack eventually said. ‘We managed to get all the slaves out, Elliott needs you to help remove their collars. Then you’ve gotta do a healing coma or something. I don’t think the Va'A'gnorns are gonna give up trying to get to you. The undergrounders sealed off the entrance we used but they’ll get in another way and they’ll make sure everyone here’ll ...’ He trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence. ‘... We just need to get out and get to Geranda.’

The Doctor nodded, polishing off his tea before lifting his arms to Jack. ‘Get me up.’

* * *

Jack was astonished at how much energy the Doctor had, despite being a man who had technically died hours previously. The Time Lord had briefed Elliott and Seth on the surgical process, and they had the first person in for surgery to remove their collar just ten minutes later. It was a young frenoonian man whose wound was clearly infected as he was feverish, swollen and shaking. He’d been put under anaesthetic and laid out prone on the table. The Doctor had given Elliott another crash course in frenoonian anatomy before the young man finally took position next to his brother by the table.

‘Remember, clip the metal and pull to the right,’ the Doctor reminded Elliott, sitting in a wheelchair to the side. ‘Then stem the bloodflow.’

Elliott nodded. He was sweating slightly, Jack noted. He couldn’t blame him. One wrong move and the frenoonian could be paralysed for life, or worse.

Seth looked at Elliott and the Doctor for a cue, and then reached down with the metal cutters and cut the band at the points it raised to the back of the neck, so only the sharp bits were left in the frenoonian’s neck. He then, with Elliott’s help, pulled the metal band away from the front of the neck. Just as it had with the Doctor – though much worse – the skin ripped away with it to leave a band of blood. As Seth dealt with the flow, Elliot took position, holding the remaining collar at the point the sharp metal cut into the poor alien’s neck.

‘Brilliant. Remember frenoonian anatomy, you need to pull to the right to avoid the major artery,’ the Doctor said, smiling reassuringly at the young man.

Elliott took a deep, nervous breath, and began to pull. Immediately blood coated the frenoonian’s neck, Elliott’s hands, and the table.

‘Keep going,’ the Doctor encouraged.

The human did. He kept pulling, nanometre by nanometre, until the sharp points of the collar came out and the frenoonian was free. Quickly Seth covered the bloody wound in saline and pads to stop the flow as Elliott used the handheld scanner to check for damage.

‘He’s okay,’ Elliott announced. 

‘Good work,’ the Doctor told them as Elliott and Seth both relaxed. ‘Get him to aftercare and do the next one.’

* * *

It took four hours to do the forty-five people needing their collars removed, Elliot taking great care over each and every one. It was only then Seth went, and with Jack assisting, his collar was removed just a few minutes later. Jack took Seth out to aftercare, and they were left with a pile of bloody metal in the corner and forty-six successful operations.

‘Hey, you did it,’ the Doctor said to Elliott, smiling.

‘I did, didn’t I?’ Eliott breathed, finally relaxing and smiling. He looked at the Doctor. ‘Thank you. And thank you for bringing Seth back to me.’

‘You’re welcome,’ the Doctor replied.

* * *

Despite the fact Jack could see the Doctor was itching to leave, the Time Lord obediently stayed off of his feet to allow his body to heal. For the next few days they remained in the clinic, both Jack and the Doctor helping out wherever they could. Most of the freed slaves had been discharged and taken in by the community – given food, bedding and work to do – but a few had remained in the clinic due to infections or extensive physical abuse, as well as Elliott’s other patients. 

Elliott, Jack noticed, was constantly asking the Doctor questions – seeking his tutelage. The Doctor was obliging, being careful to explain absolutely everything in minute detail to make sure Elliott completely understood. Every procedure he guided Elliott through with all due patience and encouragement, and very soon the worst of the patients were healing fast.

Whenever the Doctor went to sleep, Rose woke up. Jack was updating her to the day’s events, and then filling the Doctor in on what she’d said when he woke up. Mostly she was telling him to rest and take it easy, and he seemed to be taking that advice.

The Va'A'gnorns hadn’t yet shown up, and the longer their absence, the more Jack worried that whatever retribution they had planned the worse it was going to be. He and the Doctor just had to be out of the underground long before that happened. The Doctor might have left them a warning in the form of his ship’s emblem, but Jack wasn’t so sure the Va'A'gnorns were going to worry too much about that. There was only one Ka Faraq Gatri – the Doctor – and the Va'A'gnorns owned the entire continent. He didn’t doubt the Doctor’s ability to outwit them, but there was no escaping the fact that they were savagely outnumbered.

The underground was a strangely beautiful place. It was one massive community, where everyone knew each other’s name and supported each other all they could. They only had power for three hours a day, but the community used it sparingly. Elliott explained that the power came from solar energy converters secreted overground, and as such the power was very limited. His clinic ran on reserves, so he operated at minimal power whenever he could.

Jack had only fleetingly visited the underground when he’d been on Sirrus before – they hid themselves very well. While they were eating, Seth told him and the Doctor how entrances were opened and closed regularly to make sure that nobody except the undergrounders knew where the entrances were. He also explained how all of the equipment in the clinic had been salvaged by him from the overground; there were tens of very well-equipped hospitals for the oligarchs and friends of the Va'A'gnorns within fifty miles of where they were.

‘I’ve been stealing supplies from them since I was five,’ Seth told them. ‘Cos I was the smallest, no one noticed me. Someone found me some smart-looking clothes and I just merged into any human families that were there and no one batted an eyelid.’

‘What have you stolen?’ Jack asked.

‘Everything. Blood, antibiotics, bandages, right up to machines like the scanner.’

‘Wait, you stole the scanner? It’s massive,’ Jack pointed out, frowning.

Seth grinned. ‘Yeah, that was a fun day.’

‘And they didn’t see you wheeling it out?’ Jack asked.

‘I grab a white coat now, and everyone thinks I’m a doctor just moving stuff around.’

‘Don’t they notice things going missing?’

‘I don’t think they care,’ Seth told them. ‘They just replace it the next day.’

‘Too rich to care,’ the Doctor mused. ‘Because what’s a hundred grand machine going missing? Nothing. Just gets written off.’

Seth nodded. ‘I go up there every week and I see ‘em all, all the rich people in these beautiful rooms being treated by these amazing doctors with the best machines.’

‘While you’re all left in the cold and dark,’ the Doctor muttered. Jack glanced at him, his eyebrows had lowered. He was angry. ‘What do you think of the people up there, Seth?’

Seth shrugged. ‘I kinda wish I could be them, but then I look at them all walking around in their expensive stuff, throwing money down the drain. That’s why I just slip in without anyone noticing. No one cares about anyone else, parents don’t care about kids and I don’t think the doctors care about their patients. They just get bonuses for not letting the important people die. Everyone’s got their own agenda up there. It’s cold down here, but I think it’s even colder up there.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘You’re right. It won’t be like this forever, Seth. I promise, I’m going to sort this place out.’

Seth smiled a little. Jack could hardly believe he was only fourteen.

* * *

Five days later, Elliott removed the casts on the Doctor’s legs and his back brace. The human clearly wasn’t happy about it, but was surprised when the Doctor managed to stand up and walk around with only minimal winces. When the power was up Elliott did a full body scan, and was consequently astonished.

‘You’re healing so fast,’ Elliott told him, showing the Doctor the results of the scan.

‘As I should,’ the Doctor mused, winkling at Elliott. He looked at Jack. ‘I think I might drop into a healing coma, then tomorrow morning we can leave.’

‘Yeah, what are your plans for that?’ Elliott asked seriously.

‘What d’you mean?’

‘How are you gonna find Geranda when you don’t know where she is?’

The Doctor pulled a face. ‘Don’t really know,’ he confessed. ‘But I’ll think of something.’

‘I’ll go with you,’ Seth suddenly announced.

Everyone looked at him. ‘Seth …’ Elliott began.

‘I know the city, I know where she is,’ Seth continued adamantly, straightening up. ‘Please let me help you, Doctor, Jack.’

The Doctor paused, considering that. It was true that without Seth they would likely be wandering around the overground trying to find a needle in a city-sized haystack. They needed to find Geranda and finish this as quickly as possible.

The Time Lord looked at Elliott. ‘How d’you feel about that?’

Elliott glanced at Seth, and sighed. ‘Yeah. Take him with you.’

Seth grinned. ‘I’ll pack some stuff,’ he said, and ran out of the door before anyone could say anything else.

The Doctor looked at Elliott again as the door closed. ‘You’re okay with this?’

Elliott shrugged. ‘Do I get a choice?’ he asked. ‘You need him. He knows the overground better than anyone.’

‘I can say no,’ the Doctor gently reminded him, glancing at Jack, who nodded. ‘We’ll manage.’

‘No, take him,’ Elliott insisted. ‘But … do me a favour?’

‘What?’

‘... Don’t bring him back.’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘You’re leaving the planet after this, right? Take him with you. Don’t bring him back here.’

The Doctor gazed at him. ‘There’s room for you too, Elliott.’

Elliott smiled weakly at that. ‘I’m the only doctor in fifty miles of the underground,’ he told the Doctor. ‘I can’t leave. But Seth can. Just get him away from this planet. I don’t care where. Anywhere but here. He deserves way more than this. Please?’

The Doctor glanced at Jack, who was standing there poker-faced. 

‘Okay,’ the Doctor finally said.

Elliott smiled. ‘Thank you. I need to check Elso’s healing,’ he said, and left.

The Doctor looked at Jack once more. ‘I’ll go into a healing coma now.’

Jack nodded. ‘So I should expect Rose,’ he supposed.

‘Make sure she stays still, else I might not heal,’ the Doctor said. ‘We’ll head off tomorrow morning.’

‘Got it,’ Jack said. 

The Doctor closed his eyes, and slipped into his coma.


	26. Declaration of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, Jack, and Seth head out to the city to find Geranda. Brax discovers a terrible truth about his brother’s future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what laser bullets are, but they sound awesome.

Braxiatel had tried to make himself useful to the future version of his brother, but it had quickly become apparent that he didn’t need or want anyone but Leah. He kept telling him to get out of the way or go and make tea, so in the end Brax decided to just let him get on with it.

For the ensuing few days, Braxiatel had kept to himself. He’d gone to the library to read about human physiology in the hopes of not repeating what had happened. He had a lot of books to read, but at least he might have some notion of what to do if it ever happened again.

He emerged a few days later and went straight to the infirmary to check on his future brother’s progress. He entered to find Alex in the bed beside his mother’s, with the future Doctor sitting between them, chewing his thumb nail. The toddler looked a lot better, Brax noted, although he was still in a coma. More colour in his cheeks, and a normal heart rate. Whatever magic his brother had done had worked. 

He walked up to Thete, still holding a book on human physiology.

‘How is he?’ Brax asked anxiously.

‘He’s fine,’ the future Doctor replied, looking up. ‘He’ll need monitoring for a week or so but as long as he doesn’t get an infection and you keep up his medications then he’ll pull through.’

‘Thank you,’ Brax replied sincerely.

‘No problem,’ his future brother replied, before his eyes dropped to the book he was carrying. ‘For the next time you nearly kill my kids?’ he wondered.

Brax felt his ears burning. ‘I’m sorry.’

The future Doctor waved a hand to brush it away. ‘It’s done,’ he said. 

There was an uncomfortable silence.

‘Do you want me to drop you off at Anzen?’ Braxiatel eventually asked.

The future Doctor nodded. ‘Yes, please. Just let me say goodbye to Alex first.’

Brax nodded, fully understanding. The future Doctor moved forward to sit beside his son on the bed, reaching up to stroke back his fringe from his eyes. ‘Ei’wi-joi. Tera eon’mifa’qe. Wi-arit aroinab qe kai’wi-mina’eon,’ he muttered to the boy, kissing him on the forehead. 

Brax stayed perfectly still as the future Doctor just sat there a while, gazing at the child, stroking back his unruly brown hair continuously. Then he seemed to steel himself, standing up and turning to Brax.

‘I’m ready,’ he said, though his voice trembled slightly.

Brax just nodded and led him in the direction of the console room. Unsurprisingly, halfway there Leah appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto her future dad’s coat in a very firm grip.

‘And  _ where  _ are  _ you _ going?’ she demanded to know.

‘Back to my own time,’ the future Doctor replied, grinning a little, clearly at her assertive expression.

‘But you can’t go!’ Leah told him in a tone of voice that almost sounded like an order. ‘You’ve gotta stay, Daddy!’

‘Alex is going to be okay,’ her future dad assured her. ‘I’ve done what I was here to do.’

‘But you gotta stay,’ Leah begged him. ‘Please.’

The future Doctor half-smiled, dropping down to her height. ‘Hey, you know I can’t. That’s not fair on your real dad. Cos I remember being him, and I remember how much I was looking forward to seeing you again. Gonna be a bit of a letdown if I stay and you get bored of me, then ignore him when he comes back.’

‘I won’t ignore him!’ she insisted.

The future Doctor laughed. ‘Besides, I’ve got my own version of you to get back to. So would you rather wait now, or wait for me in the future?’

‘Future! That’s ages away,’ Leah informed him.

He laughed again and hugged her tight before pulling back and cupping her face in both hands.. ‘Don’t grow up too fast, okay?’

‘What kinda sentence is that?’ Leah asked seriously. 

The future Doctor laughed again. ‘Yeah, you’re right. But do me a favour? Go and look after Alex.’

Leah’s face fell. ‘You won’t stay.’ He shook his head. She just gave him one final hug and stepped back. ‘I’ll look after Alex, don’t worry about him.’

‘I won’t,’ the future Doctor replied. She smiled, and ran off. 

* * *

‘Here you go, Doctor,’ the ex-slave Kyeeta said, putting a plate of three or four thick, creamy urgalan pancakes in front of him topped with mindas fruit. The Doctor stared at it, bewildered, before looking around at everyone else’s breakfast in the café. Jack and Seth both had the same, but everyone else seemed to have the set menu of porridge.

‘Err …’ the Doctor began, but Kyeeta smiled.

‘This is for your journey,’ she said. ‘The last of the supplies.’

‘But everyone…’

‘Is absolutely fine with it,’ she completed. ‘This is the least we can do; to give you a good breakfast before you leave.’

The Doctor thought about protesting, but as Jack and Seth tucked in he decided the allure of creamy urgalan pancakes was too much to resist and he started eating.

All of the rescued slaves with the exception of the badly-beaten Elso were now out of the clinic and integrated into the community. Most of them had taken up roles, and some of them were in talks to be evacuated from the planet. The underground community itself had over two thousand people, and there were plenty of roles to fill. Every species of every age mixing together to help each other all they could. The perfect society, the Doctor mused, just on the wrong side of the ground.

He kept checking Seth during the breakfast, and the teenager was clearly becoming increasingly nervous. When they had finished and Jack left to clear up, the Doctor pulled his chair closer to him.

‘Scared?’ the Doctor asked.

‘A little,’ the teenager confessed.

‘You can still back out,’ the Doctor told him. ‘No one will think any less of you.’

‘No, I wanna come,’ Seth told him, nodding as if to convince himself. 

‘If you’re sure,’ the Doctor said, gazing at him.

Jack returned with Elliott in tow. Elliott looked at Seth, smiled, and then looked at the Time Lord. 

‘You’re leaving now?’

The Doctor nodded.

* * *

After the Doctor had checked the patients and given Elliott some final pieces of advice, Seth packed a bag of necessities, they bid farewell, and left.

Seth led them through the underground and to an exit especially created for them. They clambered a ladder and emerged near the set of waterfalls that the Doctor had nearly died in. The Doctor looked up to check the weather – it was cold, and dark clouds were forming in the sure signs of an oncoming thunderstorm. The Doctor quickly motioned for them to move away from the hole to the underground, as twenty seconds later there was a detonation and the entrance disappeared in a tide of mud and rocks.

‘No going back,’ the Doctor mused, glancing at Seth. 

The teenager readjusted his backpack, and looked at his two elders. ‘West,’ he said.

The Doctor nodded, and indicated with his finger. ‘That way. Stay quiet.’

* * *

Brax and the future Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS onto Anzen. Brax walked his brother to the gate, where they stopped short of entering.

‘Thank you,’ Brax said again. Thete gave a mock salute. ‘When do I tell you about Anzen?’ Brax wondered.

‘When you feel I’m ready to hear it,’ Thete replied.

‘But it’s going to destroy you.’

‘Pretty much,’ Thete answered, shrugging. 

There was an awkward moment as they both just stood there, Brax not quite sure what to do next. Then he leant forward, and hugged his brother. Thete was clearly a little startled at the unusual display of affection from his brother, but hugged him back anyway.

Brax let go and stepped back. ‘Getting used to these human emotions,’ he supposed upon seeing his brother’s expression.

Thete grinned. ‘Take care of yourself,’ he said, turned, and walked through the gates to Anzen Palace.

Brax sighed, turned, and went back into the TARDIS.

* * *

The Doctor lead the party back via the forest that the slaves had escaped through straight towards the road, but it was thick with police. The Doctor moved carefully and quietly with Jack and Seth mimicking his every step, and they managed to make it to a spot beside the main road. It was full of security cars, flashing lights and people searching.

The Doctor ducked, pulling Jack and Seth down with him behind a fallen tree to observe what was going on. Some were huddled in groups talking; some wandering around the perimeter of the road making notes. Others were in search groups, clearly looking for the slaves. There was a fleet of police cars and vans - most of them empty.

‘We can’t get across,’ the Doctor was about to say, when suddenly a very loud and powerful engine started up from somewhere in the distance.

‘What the hell’s that?’ Jack asked, wide-eyed.

‘Sounds like a ... ‘ The Doctor paused, looking back towards the direction of the underground. ‘Oh no.’

‘What? What is it?’ Jack asked.

‘I’m gonna look, stay here,’ he told them, and darted off into the trees.

Seth made to follow, but Jack held him back. 

‘He’s running straight towards them,’ Seth said, clearly alarmed.

‘He’ll be fine,’ Jack assured him. Twenty seconds later they heard a yell that sounded a lot like, ‘there he is!’ and weapons discharging. ‘Okay,’ Jack conceded. ‘Not so fine.’

They both stood up as the Doctor returned, grabbed Jack’s coat, yelled, ‘sorry!’ and threw him out into the open forest.

Jack yelped, catching a glimpse of a horde of policemen running straight towards him before the Doctor grabbed his arm and yanked him up again, dragging him behind him as he skipped over the fallen tree and straight towards an empty van.

The three jumped inside, the Doctor quickly diving down below the dashboard and hotwiring it. As the policemen drew nearer, the van splurged into life, the Doctor grabbed the wheel and they accelerated at breakneck speed down the road, the Doctor at the helm. The radio exploded into life, playing a dramatic classical music-type track.

‘Jesus Christ!’ Jack cried as the Doctor drove like a madman, slaloming through the parked vehicles in a hiss of smoke and tyre screech as the music became even more dramatic. But in front of them the police had already been alerted to their presence, jumping into their cars to form a roadblock.

‘Hold on tight!’ the Doctor cried, as Jack realised that the Doctor was speeding up at the sight of the roadblock – not slowing down. The immortal hugged the back of his seat, checking Seth in the back who was doing the same.

The Doctor drove at a perfect angle in-between two of the cars, clipping their bonnets and sending them flying across the road. The van slowed only slightly, but the Doctor quickly sped up again and left the policemen in the dust.

Jack was about to slightly relax, when suddenly he heard the sound of something overhead. It was an alien version, but it was quite clear what it was. Helicopter.

‘Get under cover!’ Jack yelled at the Doctor, knowing full well that there was nowhere to go just as the helicopter loomed into view. The back door opened, and there he was. Spleen’s brother, holding a gun. Then he started shooting. 

‘Get down!’ Jack shouted and ducked behind the dashboard, but the Doctor could hardly do that. So Jack quickly changed his mind and dived over the Doctor instead, attempting to cover him from any laser bullets, which were now pummeling into the windscreen threatening to break the glass. 

The Doctor swerved and turned all he could to try and stop the onslaught of gunfire, but Spleen’s brother had too much of an vantage point. He was going to break the glass and they’d be massacred. They couldn’t slow down as they were being chased, they couldn’t go any faster as they were on top speed, and they had nowhere to turn off ...

Jack made a decision. ‘Seth! Stay down!’ he shouted, and pulled out the gun he’d acquired from the female draconian. He clambered over the Time Lord to his window, lowered it and stuck his gun out.

‘Jack! Don’t!’ the Doctor shouted, but Jack ignored him as he began to shoot. The first shot missed the helicopter. The second deflected off the shell. The third however, screamed straight through the pilot’s window and hit the control console, which consequently exploded in the pilot’s face. Almost immediately the laser bullets stopped coming as the helicopter lost control, and began to fall directly downwards like some sort of cartoon character falling down a cliff. Jack only just caught Spleen’s brother’s shocked expression as the van slipped underneath the helicopter seconds before it hit the ground and exploded.

The explosion nearly threw the van out of control, but somehow the Doctor managed to wrestle it back, Jack climbing back off of him and grabbing back onto the seat. He checked behind them, but the pursuing police cars were no longer chasing them.

‘Go!’ Jack shouted as finally they reached a junction. The Doctor took the right road, the immortal continuously checking behind them, still but no one was pursuing.

‘Seth, are you okay?’ the Doctor asked quickly. 

‘Yes!’ the teenager squeaked.

‘Sorry,’ the Doctor said, turning right down into a tunnel. ‘They were drilling down into the underground, I had to let them know that we weren’t in there anymore.’

‘Where the hell did you learn to drive like that?’ Jack wanted to know.

‘Michael Schumacher,’ the Doctor replied.

Jack sighed, just accepting that. ‘We’ve gotta ditch this van, they’ll be able to trace it …’

Suddenly the classical music on the radio stopped mid-track. 

_ ‘This is an announcement from the great and glorious leader, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. Listen attentively.’ _

The Doctor slowed a little, turning up the radio.

_ ‘This is an address to the Doctor,’  _ the voice of Pargeont Va'A'gnorn, the father of the family said, his voice full of anger and hatred. _ ‘You have killed the first heir to the Va'A'gnorn Empire. This continent declares war against you and all who associate with you. You will be found and made a severe example of. If you surrender yourself now, I will consider leniency. Any citizen with information as to the Doctor’s whereabouts will be rewarded greatly.’ _

_ ‘That was an announcement from the great and glorious leader, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. Praise him, citizens,’  _ the first voice said, and then the music resumed.

Jack looked at the Doctor, who was looking at him.

‘Well,’ Jack muttered, glancing back at Seth, who was finally sitting up and staring at them both, utterly petrified. ‘Things just got a lot more complicated.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ei’wi-joi. Tera eon’mifa’qe. Wi-arit aroinab qe kai’wi-mina’eon. - I’m so sorry. But you know that. Never forget that we love you.


	27. Into the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group continue to head to Geranda, where they discover the grim details of the female draconian’s business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little graphically violent so watch yourself, though to be honest if you don't do graphic I'm surprised you've read this far :P

They kept driving until they hit a town, where they abandoned the van. The Doctor and Jack’s faces were everywhere – every screen they could see – so they stuck to the disused subway in an attempt to stay mostly out of sight. The subways were full of poverty-stricken citizens – including women and children – many, if not all of them, sick and crying, begging the group for food. The Doctor was angry, but he forced himself to walk straight past them, swearing he’d save them after he’d saved Rose.

They kept walking for hours, only stopping to eat around midday. They followed Seth’s direction until the subway ran out and they had to emerge back on the surface in the middle of a city as night drew in.

‘We’re in the Kizo’pa district,’ Seth told them after a quick look around. ‘We need to get to Braz Tor, five miles north.’

The Doctor nodded, ready to go, but noted that Seth looked exhausted. ‘Okay, let’s rest for the night. We’ll finish this tomorrow.’

‘I’m okay,’ Seth insisted, but the Doctor shook his head. 

‘We’ll find a place to sleep, get up at 3am and get there before daybreak,’ the Doctor said, looking at Jack, who nodded.

The Time Lord took the lead, guiding the three through the city, sticking to the shadows and avoiding cameras. They finally found a partially-sheltered back alley behind a restaurant, and the Doctor stopped.

‘Here,’ he said, leading them to the end behind the bins. Seth collapsed onto the concrete, clearly more tired than he was letting on as Jack grabbed the teenager's backpack to disperse some food. After they’d eaten, the Doctor gave Seth his coat to use as protection against the cold and the human boy quickly dropped off to sleep. He still looked cold, so Jack discreetly covered him with his coat too. 

Jack then looked at the Doctor. ‘Get some sleep,’ he told the Time Lord. ‘I’ll keep watch. Want me to say anything to Rose?’

‘Yeah … Tell her we’re nearly there. And that I love her.’

Jack nodded. ‘Of course I will. How are your legs?’

‘Fine.’ The Doctor positioned himself on the concrete to lie down, hugging himself. ‘Oh, and do me a favour?’

‘What?’

‘Don’t tell her about the whole helicopter thing.’

Jack smirked. ‘Sure. Night, Doctor.’

‘Night.’

* * *

Jack sat by the Doctor and Seth, watching over them as the minutes trickled by. The city was quiet with a curfew in place, so he spent his time just gazing at the Time Lord, waiting for Rose to wake up. It took an hour until finally the Doctor seemed to get to sleep and his body moved as Rose came to consciousness.

‘Jack?’ 

‘Rose?’ he asked.

‘Yeah,’ she replied, sitting up and blinking, looking around in a daze. ‘Where are we?’

‘On the run,’ Jack answered shortly.

‘They found us?’

‘They chased us,’ Jack replied. ‘But we lost ‘em. We’re nearly at Geranda.’

‘She’d better be worth this,’ Rose muttered, checking herself over. She pulled up her trousers to check the Doctor’s legs, both of which were still bruised.

‘Does it tingle?’ Jack asked.

Rose nodded.

‘We’ve been walking all day. He said he was fine though.’

‘He was lyin’,’ Rose asked seriously. 

‘Probably why he took forever to get to sleep,’ Jack realised, moving to the bag to get the painkiller. He pulled out the needle gun and a single bottle of painkiller.

‘No, give it to him when he wakes up,’ Rose said, eyeing how little they had. ‘If he tries to fight you, tell him to take it or I’ll make sure he regrets it, yeah?’

Jack smiled. ‘Yeah, I’ll tell him,’ he replied, putting the bag away.

Rose pushed down the Doctor’s trousers again to cover her legs. ‘God, I hate this, Jack.’

Jack nodded. ‘Me too. But he said to say we’re nearly done and that he loves you.’

‘Tell him I love him too. Also that I hate him.’

‘I will,’ Jack answered, grinning. 

‘Has he had any more nosebleeds?’

‘No.’

‘Well that’s somethin’ I guess,’ Rose muttered. ‘How much longer until it’s over?’

‘We’ll get to Geranda tomorrow,’ Jack replied. ‘We’ll sort you out, then we’ll get to the rendezvous. Zak’s tracked us since we left New Shada so he knows where we are; he’ll be in orbit by now. Then we pinch a ship, get to Zak and he can take us back to the Proclamation for Brax to pick up. Home before dinner tomorrow. Simple.’

‘Simple,’ Rose echoed, curling into the fetal position. ‘Sure. God. I hope Leah and Alex are okay. I miss ‘em.’

‘Me too,’ Jack replied, his thoughts immediately turning to Braxiatel. His lack of communication must have meant Alex was fine. Probably.

She looked at Seth, lying there asleep. ‘Is Seth okay?’

‘Scared as hell,’ Jack replied. 

‘It’d be weird if he wasn’t, cos I’m bloody petrified,’ she mused, shifting over to Jack and hugging him. Jack obligingly returned the hug, until suddenly there was the sound of police sirens nearby. Jack sat up to attention with a hand poised over his gun, listening, but the sirens passed them by and echoed into the distance.

He checked the time. Five hours until they had to start again.

* * *

By 3:10am, they were on the move once more. The streets stayed quiet and utterly dead of life as the Doctor led them through the dark following Seth’s directions, sticking to the back alleys and avoiding CCTV.

Eventually they reached another subway in order to pass under the motorway, but the Doctor hesitated before they entered.

‘What’s up?’ Jack asked.

‘Doesn’t feel right,’ the Doctor muttered, glimpsing inside. 

‘Well we can’t go over,’ Jack pointed out.

‘This is the only covered access route to Braz Tor,’ Seth said.

The Doctor sighed. ‘Okay. We have to go through. Stick closely to each other.’

They walked inside, the Doctor pulling out a torch. The subway was in the process of collapsing with large cracks up the walls, and moss, dirt and something that looked a lot like blood splattered at random intervals. It smelt of something very suspect. The air was thick with a feeling none of them liked – it was making the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end. 

For a few minutes they walked in complete silence, until suddenly there was a muted scream that echoed through the tunnels. They tried not to listen too hard, but it was clearly a woman. The Doctor didn’t break stride, keeping at a constant, fairly fast pace. 

Another scream, along with sobbing. The Doctor quickly checked over his shoulder – Seth had moved closer to Jack, and the immortal himself had his gun in his hand. The Doctor didn’t tell him to put it away.

He was so busy checking the others that the Time Lord nearly tripped over a body lying in the middle of the subway, having to stumble to avoid it. He swung his torch down to highlight a corpse of a humanoid covered in blood and chained by the hands and feet.

Jack swore. The Doctor pulled out a pair of gloves and dropped to the corpse, checking it.

‘Cold to the touch; livor mortis fixed and green-brown. From that, estimate of about ten to twelve hours since death, from drugs or poisoning,’ the Doctor told them, standing up again and whipping off the gloves. ‘From the flexed position of the body it looks like he was dumped.’

‘Let’s get the hell out of here,’ Jack muttered, looking up. The exit was visible.

Another muted scream. Jack ignored it, taking Seth’s arm and leading him past the Doctor. After a few seconds, he realised the Time Lord wasn’t moving.

‘Doctor,’ Jack prompted.

Another scream.

‘That’s her,’ the Doctor muttered, looking at Jack with wide eyes.

‘Who? C’mon!’ Jack prompted.

‘It’s Gnola.’

That made Jack stop and listen. Another scream. Now he was listening properly, he recognised it. It  _ was  _ Gnola. He swore again, looking at the Doctor.

‘We can’t, wherever she is, she’s–’

‘Get Seth out, I’ll catch up,’ the Doctor interrupted, and started at a jog in the direction of the scream, the darkness quickly swallowing him before Jack could protest.

Jack looked at Seth. ‘Reckon you can make it out by yourself?’

‘Y-yeah,’ the boy told him, staring in the direction the Time Lord had disappeared.

‘Then get out of here,’ Jack said, reaching into his coat and pulling out his gun, giving it to Seth. ‘Use it if you need to.’

Then he ran.

* * *

The Doctor followed the muted cries through the darkness, the subway becoming more and more unstable until he finally reached a large metal door. The noise was coming from just beyond it.

‘Gnola?’ he hissed, trying the door. ‘It’s the Doctor!’

The cries suddenly stopped, and instead there was some muted shouts. He could tell she was gagged as he couldn’t understand a word of it.

‘I’m getting you out, okay?’ The door wasn’t budging, so he quickly checked his pockets and brought out the key he and Jack had taken from the female. He hadn’t expected it to work, but to his complete astonishment, it did.

The door swung inwards and he leapt inside. It was dark and murky and stank of rotting flesh, with bodies strewn around of dead and dying people. It was clearly the place the female Va'A'gnorn kept her stock. Right in the middle of it all was Gnola, clearly badly abused, gagged, and with tears running down her face. 

‘Doc!’ Jack shouted, and seconds later he entered the room. Jack swore loudly, looking around at the bodies.

‘Check to see if anyone’s alive,’ the Doctor said, pulling off Gnola’s gag.

‘D-Doctor?’ Gnola asked, clearly crying.

‘I’m getting you out,’ the Doctor told her, trying the key in the chains. It wasn’t working.

‘No,’ she gasped. ‘Doctor, r-run … please …’

‘The exit’s not far,’ he told her quickly. ‘We can get you out.’

‘N-no, she’s around here, the f-female Va'A'gnorn … she’s angry …’

‘No one knows we’re here.’

Gnola ignored that. ‘She w-wants to … to do things t-to you … don’t l-let her … please, run,  _ please  _ … It’s a tr-trick!’

There was the sound of something metal hitting concrete. The Doctor spun around, just in time to see the female Va'A'gnorn in the doorway holding a gun, and a stun grenade on the floor next to the Time Lord’s feet. 

He immediately kicked the grenade and it flew across the floor, straight between the female Va'A'gnorn’s legs to the dilapidated tunnel beyond. He yelled at Jack to take cover, threw himself over Gnola and half a second later, it exploded.

Immediately a high-pitched, eardrum-piercing shriek shot through the Doctor’s ears. He tried to look, but his vision was completely white. He blinked repeatedly, trying desperately to regain his senses.

‘Doc? Are you hurt?’ Jack’s shout came from his right.

‘Fine!’ the Doctor called back, his vision finally returning to see the  female Va'A'gnorn lying metres away from him, sprawled out on the floor, covered in blood and screaming. The explosion had taken away the bottom of her left leg, and her right was only hanging on by a thread. Above him the walls were beginning to cave in. 

They had to get out, or they’d all be buried.

‘It’s gonna collapse!’ the Doctor shouted, just as a shot flew just by his right leg and blasted into the wall. The female was awake and clearly in a severe amount of pain. She was already helpless and bleeding to death. She took another shot, but missed again.

_ ‘Die _ Ka Faraq Gatri!’ she screamed through a mouthful of blood, and shot for a third time. It narrowly missed his head.

Some of the room collapsed. Jack was staggering towards him, still disorientated by the blast, blindly reaching out to find the Time Lord.

‘I can’t see!’ he shouted as the Doctor dived to the female Va'A'gnorn, just avoiding the fourth shot. He pulled the gun out of her hand and threw it away. It hit the wall and bounced back to the floor.

‘Let me help you!’ the Doctor yelled over the crashes of the subway collapsing around their heads.

_ ‘DIE YOU KRESHKA!!’  _ she screamed, more blood pouring out of her mouth like water from a tap as she launched out her hands and gripped his throat. She squeezed, and he started choking.

He tried to hit her arms, but she was gripping so hard they were like tubes of titanium. Slowly he began to weaken, his vision blurring, and it was only when Jack arrived and kicked her that he got free, falling back onto the concrete, gasping for air.

‘Gnola!’ he told the now blurry shape of Jack. ‘Get Gnola!’

‘But …’

‘DO IT!’ the Doctor screamed, just as the female started dragging herself towards him, trailing a thick, wide blood river behind her. ‘I can help you, I can save you!’ he yelled desperately.

‘ _ DIE, DIE, DIE!’  _ she screeched, her eyes on fire with anger and agony. As she advanced he scrambled back, but then he realised she was going towards the gun he’d thrown away.

He forced himself upright, running to the gun, but she got there first. She turned and fired another shot. It glanced him by and hit Gnola directly in the back.

She screamed and collapsed, instantly dead.

‘Gnola!’ the Doctor shouted, but knew it was too late. Jack grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the female Va'A'gnorn, pushing him out of the doorway.

‘No!’ the Doctor cried. ‘The draconian!’

‘She’s fucking dead!’ Jack swore. ‘You can’t save her!’

The room collapsed behind them as Jack dragged him forcibly by the arm up the tunnel, which was crumbling to pieces around them.

They kept going, kept running, until they reached the exit where Seth was, holding Jack’s gun. 

‘Gnola?’ he asked.

Jack shook his head, just as the last of the tunnel collapsed behind them. He looked at the Doctor, who was still trying to get his breath back from being strangled. ‘How did she know? How did she know we were there?’

‘Either she’s a lucky guesser or someone told the Va'A'gnorns,’ the Doctor replied, looking up. ‘But if they knew we’d go through the tunnel then they’ll know where we’re headed. They’ve tried the single-person approach, but now two of the family have been killed they’ll send in the army. Chances are they’re not here yet.’

Jack nodded, straightening up. ‘How long until we get there?’ he asked Seth.

Seth pointed across the cityscape to a particularly tall, modern-looking building, looming over the rest. ‘That one, top floor.’

‘Ten minutes,’ the Doctor estimated. ‘Five if we run.’

‘Run,’ Jack concurred.


	28. Tell Your Fortune

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geranda reveals the true nature of the Va'A'gnorns. The physical stress of holding Rose’s consciousness inside his head takes a drastic turn for the Doctor.

True to the Doctor’s word, they reached the tower within five minutes. It wasn’t guarded, but it did look incredibly hard to get into. The entrance had numerous security fields protecting it as well as armed guards patrolling the building. Undeterred, the Doctor led them around the exterior looking for a way in, until he spotted an access gantry up the side. He checked for any cameras, then led Jack and Seth straight to it.

Without any words exchanged, Jack offered the Time Lord a leg up to get to the hanging ladder. Then Doctor hauled himself up to get to the platform, before offering a hand down for Seth, and then Jack. They then began to ascend the ladders, managing to get two thirds of the way up the building before finding the next portion was locked.

The Doctor looked at Jack, gesturing to a window next to them that afforded a view inside a dark, unoccupied office. ‘Can you get it open?’

Jack nodded, pulling out his gun and firing into the glass three times. He then began to ram the glass with his shoulder until it fragmented. The Doctor commenced clearing as much glass as he could before he clambered through, Seth and Jack following.

‘They might have movement sensors,’ the Doctor said, glancing back at Seth and Jack as he moved forward. ‘So careful where you …’

Suddenly the alarm began to shriek at a deafening volume.

_ ‘Intruders on floor twenty-one!’  _ a voice cried through an overhead system.

‘... Step,’ the Doctor finished redundantly, looking down at his leg hanging in mid-air through a laser beam. He looked at Seth. ‘Top floor, floor thirty, wasn’t it?’ he said, and ran out of the door into the corridor. It was clear of people, and there was a lift at the other end. He moved straight to it, hammering the call button with his palm, hopping from foot to foot as Seth and Jack skidded to a halt next to him.

A door banged open somewhere behind them as the lift began to come up from floor ten, Running footsteps commenced, along with shouts. The Doctor looked back past Seth and Jack, just in time to see a group of armed security run around the corner.

‘There they are!’ one cried, and the shots began.

The Doctor checked for any cover they could use, but they only had two doors available, both of which led to dead end rooms. He realised that they had nowhere to hide as the security ran straight towards them, firing. The lift was at floor eighteen. They’d be dead long before it reached them.

‘Get in the corner!’ Jack yelled.

There was another round of fire, and Seth screamed in pain. The Doctor grabbed him and threw him to the floor, then dived for the lights. Immediately the corridor was plunged into darkness, and the running footsteps stopped.

‘Where’d the lights go!?’

‘Doesn’t matter, they’re trapped!’

More shots fired. The Doctor tried to dive back to the corner, when suddenly his head began to burn. Then it was like fire instantaneously shooting through his entire body. He screamed out, only just hearing Jack call out his name before he lost all control of his limbs, and hit the floor.

* * *

Jack heard the Doctor scream, and immediately he started to panic.

‘Doctor!’ he called, just before a body hit the floor. ‘Shit!’

The lift doors opened, the light inside illuminating them. Without a moment’s hesitation Jack grabbed Seth and the Doctor and hauled them into the lift, the Doctor writhing on the floor. The immortal whacked the button for the top floor. The doors closed before security could get there, and the lift began to ascend.

‘Shit, shit, shit,’ Jack breathed, dropping to check them both. ‘Seth, Doctor!’

He checked Seth first, mentally preparing his war medical training for bullet wounds, but there was no blood. Confused, he checked the Doctor, but there was no blood on him either.

‘What is it?’ Jack asked the Time Lord who was still writhing; crying out. He was choking, staring up at Jack with wide, pain-filled eyes.

‘C-can’t …’ he groaned, unable to stay still as his legs kept moving around as if trying to find a comfortable position. ‘Aurora … tonk … clonk …’

‘Aurora?’ Jack asked, gaping. The Doctor was about to have a seizure. ‘You can’t! Not now!’

‘Oxy … oxy … brain …’

Jack quickly took his overcoat off, folding it up and placing it under the Doctor’s head. The Doctor was clearly in discomfort, curling into himself. One arm covered his face, whilst the other was wrapped around his stomach; his entire body gently rocking back and forth.

Then he stopped moving.

‘I’ve got you, got you,’ Jack told him, brushing back the Doctor’s hair from his eyes. ‘You’re okay. I promise, you’re okay.’

Then a hand twitched. Then it was the shoulder. Then it spread like wildfire as his entire body was suddenly jerking and thrashing as his muscles contracted and relaxed entirely of their own accord. Jack could do nothing but sit there and watch, desperately trying to figure out why the Doctor was doing this. What about Rose?

Finally the seizure fell to a stop, and Jack checked his breathing. Still going. Seconds later the Doctor opened his eyes, staring up at Jack groggily.

‘Doctor?’ Jack asked nervously.

‘Where’m I?’ the Time Lord asked, slurring.

‘We’re in the lift, we’re heading straight to Geranda’s floor. I need you for this bit. Please stay with me,’ Jack almost begged.

‘Amakay,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘Sorry.'

‘Seth.’ Jack turned back to the teenager, who was still unconscious. ‘Seth.’ He shook him, but the teen didn’t react. Jack looked at the Doctor, who was attempting to sit up. ‘Whoa, take it easy. You just had a seizure.’

‘I hadda seizure?’ the Doctor asked with a clearer voice, frowning.

'Yeah,' Jack replied, anxious. 'Any idea why?'

The Doctor’s eyes flickered to the lift panel. ‘Ah think we’ve got bigger prob’ems, Jack,’ he said, using the railing to pull himself to his feet. Jack followed his gaze, and realised the lift was stopping. As it came to a halt the Doctor nearly fell over, so Jack dived to grab him. Seconds later, the doors parted.

It was a huge, luxurious room full of colour. It was plush, with deep red and gold upholstery and seemingly hundreds of scatter cushions dotted about everywhere. The air was thick with pleasant incense, and the only living being was a woman sitting in a beautiful chair behind a table, dressed in carefully embroidered clothes and expensive jewels, the only part of her face visible being her mouth. She was facing them.

‘Tell your fortune, Time Lord?’ she asked in a voice that crackled like a newly-lit fire, smiling at him.

Jack looked at the Doctor, whose eyes had narrowed. ‘Geranda. You were expecting us,’ the Time Lord realised.

Geranda smiled a little more. ‘Why do you suppose I allowed you to come, boy?’

Still supporting himself on the wall, the Doctor stepped forward out of the lift, so Jack followed, dragging Seth.

‘Then you must know why I’m here,’ the Doctor said.

‘I can read it on the winds,’ she said, and gestured to the chair opposite to her. ‘Tell your fortune, Time Lord. Fly among the stars of your future.’

The Doctor didn’t move, so neither did Jack. ‘Tell me how to fix myself.’

Geranda persisted with her smile. ‘Play with me, boy. Do you not wish to know the fate of you and your family? Stare with me into oblivion, and you will find the answers you seek.’

Suddenly a beeping sound came from the direction of Geranda. Geranda pressed her palm.

_ ‘Ma’am, we have intruders in the building. Are you well?’ _

‘Go on,’ Jack said, his eyes narrowing. ‘Turn us in.’

Geranda just persisted with her smile, lifting her palm to her lips. ‘I am fine, the intruders are not here. I will lock my door to be sure. Search the other areas.’

She turned it off, and fell silent.

‘Why did you do that?’ the Doctor asked.

She didn’t answer, just waiting for him to sit down. Jack looked at his best friend, who hovered momentarily.

‘Don’t,’ Jack said quickly.

The Doctor looked at him, shooting a half-smile before he stepped forward to sit on the chair Geranda had indicated. She pulled a tissue from a jewel-encrusted box on the table in front of her, handing it to him. 

He took it, obviously confused.

‘Heal your wounds, Time Lord,’ she informed him. It was only then Jack realised he was having another nosebleed. The Doctor quickly dealt with it, staring hard at Geranda as she pulled out a crystal ball from under the table, placing it between them. She then took several sticks of incense, lighting them. They burned gently in her hand, which was adorned with tens of fantastical rings.

‘Science, rationality,’ Geranda began, waving her free hand over the ball. ‘Dismiss them. Dismiss your thoughts. Become empty. Open your mind to all possibilities.’ She waved the hand full of lit incense under his nose. ‘Fly through the clouds and into oblivion, Time Lord.’

Jack’s eyes shot open as the Doctor suddenly sagged in the chair as though he’d just been hit around the head. Geranda held up a hand to Jack without even looking in his direction.

‘You will disturb the aether flow, Immortal,’ she said.

‘What the hell are you doing to him!?’ Jack demanded to know, ignoring her. He stepped forward, pulling out his gun and pointing it directly at Geranda.

Geranda ignored him. ‘Time Lord, you are in oblivion. What do you see?’

‘The dark,’ the Doctor croaked, his body limp but his eyes wide open, staring sightlessly ahead of him.

‘Beyond the darkness. Beyond oblivion. What is beyond oblivion?’

‘It’s too dark,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘I can’t see.’

Jack just stared, panicking. He didn’t know what to do. Was she hurting him?

‘But you can,’ Geranda encouraged, waving a little more incense under the Doctor’s nose. He sank in the chair even more, and Jack reaffirmed his grip on his gun. He was acutely aware he only had one shot left. ‘See beyond the darkness, boy. There are many sights beyond it. What do you see?’

‘I see …’ the Doctor whispered, his brow furrowed. ‘I see … colour. There’s colour.’

‘Good. How bright?’

‘It’s blinding.’

‘Colour indicates a dramatic future; full of life and virility. What is beyond the colour?’

‘I’m … I’m in the clouds.’

‘Who is there, Time Lord?’

‘My family.’ The Doctor smiled. ‘Everyone’s there. I’m hugging them.’

‘This vision means you shall soon all be reunited. You miss them, but you will return to them stronger than before. For you have been sick, have you not? But all will be well soon.’

Jack gawped at her. ‘How can you know that?’

Geranda ignored him. ‘Look above you, Time Lord. What do you see?’

‘There’s … there’s a boy, playing. He’s smiling.’

‘You shall have a male heir,’ Geranda said, waving her hand over the crystal ball once more. ‘He smiles and plays – he shall be healthy, handsome and full of life. What is happening now, Time Lord?’

The Doctor suddenly flinched, contorting in the chair. ‘No … No … he’s falling!’

Geranda didn’t lose her smile. ‘Watch more closely, Time Lord.’

The Doctor’s brow furrowed, his eyes still staring transfixed ahead of him. ‘No … he’s not falling … He’s flying. He’s flying to me. He’s sparkling, like the stars.’

‘Your male heir shall take your place when he has flown enough in the stars,’ Geranda said, putting her incense into a tray and taking a new one, lighting it. ‘But you cannot stay beyond oblivion forever, Doctor. Return to us, and be safe on your journey.’

She waved the new incense under the Doctor’s nose. He slowly rose back to reality, blinking erratically.

‘Doc, are you okay?’ Jack asked quickly, still pointing his gun.

‘What was that?’ the Doctor asked, barely able to get the words out.

‘A fortune, Doctor. Do you believe in such a future?’

‘That’s not possible, not here, not now,’ the Doctor murmured, sitting up.

Geranda was still smiling. ‘Yet it has questioned your beliefs.’

The Doctor just stared at her, his eyes wide.

Geranda indicated the incense sticks on the table. ‘Kaipo Malga. Have you heard of it? It is a potent hallucinogen.’

‘You faked it!’ Jack realised.

Geranda laughed. ‘Of course, Immortal. Harmless, yet potent. I implanted word suggestions, Time Lord. I mentioned your family, so you would think of your family. I kept calling you boy, so you would envisage a boy. I told you to play with me, as he played. I have smiled as he did, and given no negative language so you would not feel in a state of threat. I told you that you would fly among the stars of your future, as your boy did. My skill is a simple magic trick using word suggestions and a harmless, short-term hallucinogen. But you already worked that out, I’m sure.’

‘But you knew he’d been sick, you knew he was missing his family,’ Jack insisted.

‘To be in the situation you are, you must have been ill in some fashion, and you must also be missing your family, it’s only natural,’ she replied. 

‘But why?’ the Doctor asked, frowning.

‘Your experience was all falsified, yet it made you momentarily question your beliefs. The Va'A'gnorns visit me regularly so they might experience what you just did, and they are not logical like you. They believe in my words. Perhaps now you will understand them better, and how strongly they believe they are fated to rule. Please, use this.’

‘You want them to lose power,’ the Doctor realised. ‘And you want me to do it.’

‘You are a good man, Doctor,’ Geranda said. ‘You are known to be a saviour of worlds. I beg you. Please save this world. There is nothing but pure evil running through the Va'A'gnorns, formed by generations of dictators who train their children to think they are beyond normal people. They are fueled by money, power, and they believe their position to be eternal. You are the only person who can save us, and now you know how dangerous they really are.’

The Doctor slowly nodded. 

‘You are suffering with two consciousnesses inside your head,’ she said. ‘You wish to know how to fix it. That’s why you came here, as the previous Time Lord came to visit my great grandmother.’

‘Yes,’ the Doctor affirmed. ‘Can you help me?’

Geranda nodded, getting up. Her jewellery clinked as she moved across the room to a desk where she opened a drawer and pulled out a small bottle, half-full of black liquid. She moved back, and gave it to him.

‘This is what my great grandmother gave to the last Time Lord,’ she said. 

‘What does it do?’ the Doctor asked, examining the bottle.

‘I do not know. My great grandmother’s writings have been lost. All I know is that the last Time Lord took this, and left.’

‘Seriously?’ Jack asked, annoyed. ‘We went through all this and that’s the best you’ve got?’

‘Jack,’ the Doctor said firmly, and Jack obediently shut up. ‘Do I drink it?’

‘I believe so,’ Geranda said.

The Doctor looked at the bottle again, before suddenly there was a loud beeping from the corner, and they all looked over to see a screen had turned itself on. There was the Va'A'gnorn logo, spinning in the centre.

_ ‘This is an announcement from the great and glorious leader, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. Listen attentively.’ _

The picture came on to reveal Pargeont Va'A'gnorn, dressed resplendently and sitting in a throne. 

_ ‘This is an address to the human known as Seth, the brother of Elliott.’ _

The Doctor and Jack immediately looked down at the boy. He was sitting up, having just come around.

_ ‘I’m afraid the underground has been exposed. Your brother was among many of those taken, executed for treason. He informed me during interrogation that you are with the Immortal. If you wish to see your brother’s body, I strongly suggest that you escort the Immortal to the nearest government official.’ _

_ ‘That was an announcement from the great and glorious leader, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. Praise him, citizens.’ _

Silence. 

Jack felt cold. He looked at Seth, who was still staring at the screen.

‘No,’ Seth suddenly snapped. ‘No. No. No!’

‘Seth …’ the Doctor began.

‘No! Shut up!!!’ Seth screamed, tears erupting from his eyes. ‘He’s not dead! He’s okay! He’s always okay!!! Whatever Va'A'gnorn did, it wasn’t that!!! He’s lying!!!’

No one said anything. Seth stopped, staring at them in the heavy, thick, and unbelievably cold silence.

‘No. Don’t you  _ dare,  _ don’t you  _ dare!’  _ Seth screamed.

‘Seth …’ the Doctor tried again.

‘Shut the  _ hell  _ up!’ Seth cried. ‘This is your fault! And you!’ he directed at Jack. ‘I hate you!  _ Both  _ of you!’

He ran over to the Doctor, commencing pummelling his fists on the Time Lord’s chest. His lean, underfed frame meant his punches were weak, so the Doctor just let him do it until he ran out of energy and sagged, holding onto the Doctor’s shirt with clenched fists. The Doctor hugged him as the teenager shook, sobbing relentlessly.

For a while, there was only the sound of Seth sobbing. Eventually the Doctor pulled back, pocketing the liquid. 

‘Time to pay Pargeont Va'A'gnorn a visit,’ the Doctor announced, gazing at Seth, who looked up at him with red eyes. ‘I’m fed up with him killing people I like. He won’t get away with this, Seth. I promise.’

‘You will be wanting passage to the Va'A'gnorn mansion,’ Geranda supposed, standing up again. She walked over to a curtain, and pulled it back to reveal a transmat. ‘This will take you directly to the Va'A'gnorn residence.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Thank you. Seth?’

‘Yeah?’ the boy croaked.

‘It’s going to be dangerous. You don’t have to come. I’ll find Elliott’s body and we can give him a proper burial.’

Seth stood up straight, wiping at his eyes. ‘No, I’m coming,’ he said.

The Doctor didn’t even fight with him. He just nodded again, and moved over to the transmat.

‘Ready?’ he asked Jack and Seth.

‘Ready.’

‘Ready.’

‘Molto bene,’ the Doctor muttered, and stepped into the transmat.


	29. Recon Professionals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor tackles Pargeont Va'A'gnorn head on. Jack and Seth discover something horrific in the holding cells.

They ended up in some transmat room within the Va'A'gnorn mansion, which was lined with tens of transmats all active and ready for transportation. There were no guards; somewhat of an oversight, Jack mused.

He checked Seth, who seemed to have gained an air of confidence about him as he stepped out the transmat behind Jack, his eyes scouring their surroundings.

‘Where is he?’ the teenager grated.

‘On his throne, I’ll bet,’ the Doctor muttered. He led the group out of the transmat room and into a corridor. It was very quiet.

‘Where is everyone?’ Jack wondered aloud.

‘All out looking for us,’ the Doctor supposed, checking each direction. ‘We’d better split up.’

Jack raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’

‘Didn’t you notice? On that broadcast he only mentioned you being with Seth, not me. Maybe he thinks we’ve separated. He might not be expecting me.’

‘Oh,’ Jack realised. ‘Okay. What’s the plan?’

‘Go to the cells and the slavery area. Get everyone out and find Elliott. I’ll go and deal with the Va'A'gnorns,’ the Doctor said, reaching into his jacket and giving Jack the key they’d taken from the female.

‘But …’ Seth began.

‘Find Elliott,’ the Doctor repeated, looking at Jack. Jack knew exactly what the Doctor was thinking. If Seth was allowed anywhere near the Va'A'gnorn father, there was a severe risk the boy would heavily consider killing him. The Doctor was trying to save the teenager’s soul.

‘Got it,’ Jack replied, squeezing Seth’s shoulder. ‘We’ll find him.’

‘What are you gonna do to the Va'A'gnorns?’ Seth asked eagerly.

‘Dunno,’ the Doctor admitted with a shrug. ‘But I’ll think of something. Go that way and head down. See you later.’

And with that, he walked off, hands in pockets.

‘Wait!’ Jack said, running to catch up with him. The Doctor turned, and Jack consequently grabbed his face in both hands and snogged him relentlessly for what felt like a small lifetime. He eventually pulled back, letting go of the Doctor’s head. ‘Been meaning to do that for weeks,’ Jack told him, winking. ‘I’ll see you in a bit.’

The Doctor wiped his mouth, pulling a face. ‘In a bit,’ he confirmed, and walked off again.

Jack gazed after the departing Doctor for just a moment, before he looked back at Seth. ‘Let’s go.’

* * *

Rose was walking down a long, grand corridor, feeling very, very numb. Ever since she’d woken up in the lift, it had become apparent that it was important that everyone thought she was the Doctor – including Jack and Seth. So she had pretended to be him for their sakes. She’d somehow managed to get away with it.

However, now she was heading towards the tyrannical, insane fascist dictator without a hint of a plan, she was realising that maybe she should have come clean. She had no idea what to do. She had control of the Doctor’s body, but that didn’t make her him.

Never mind Seth and Jack.  _ She  _ needed the Doctor.

She’d figured that the Doctor must be unconscious, which was why she was awake. But he’d been unconscious for a very long time now. With every minute that trickled by, the increasing possibility that he was permanently gone was looming at the edge of her head. But she purposely kept pushing the thoughts away, and kept walking.

_ Can you hear me? _

Rose stopped abruptly. ‘Doctor?’ she asked, her Time Lord hearts skipping a beat.

_ Hello. Stay calm, keep walking. Take the next left. _

She obeyed him, moving again. ‘Oh my God, am I glad to hear you. I thought you …’

She trailed off, not wanting to say the next words.

_ Don’t think about it. _

‘What’s happened? What was that seizure? Why have we switched?’

_ I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. Let’s just deal with this first. _

‘Doctor, we’re in the mansion. I told Jack and Seth to get the prisoners. They think I’m you.’

_ I know, I’ve been watching you. Well done. _

‘You’ve been watchin’? You didn’t say anythin’.’

_ I couldn’t get you to hear me. _

She sighed. ‘I’m walking in the front room of a completely crazy man and I dunno what to do.’

_ Me neither. _

She laughed at his tone. ‘Recon professionals.’

_ Yep. Let’s just get to the throne room to check he’s there. Keep him distracted so Jack and Seth can get to the cells and slave area. _

‘Distracted,’ Rose reiterated, deadpan. ‘I can’t distract him.’

_ Of course you can. _

‘I can’t talk like you.’

_ You don’t need to. _

‘What else am I gonna do?’

_ Whatever you think will work. _

Rose thought about that. ‘Maybe I can do the Macarena and he’ll be so confused he’ll forget to kill us?’

He laughed in her head. 

‘I’m serious,’ she insisted. ‘I need you.’

_ You don’t need me.  _

‘Yeah I do.’ 

_ Rose, you’ve saved my life sixty-eight times. I know, I’ve been counting. You don’t need me. You were fine when you saved my regeneration, and you’ll be fine now. Besides, I’m here, aren’t I? Talking inside my own head. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d never say. Or think. Hmm. Am I thinking or saying right now? _

‘Doctor, please,’ Rose begged. ‘I’m gonna get you killed.’

_ Rose. You’ll be fine and you’ll do it in your own way. I believe in you.  _

She just sighed as she took the next left and emerged into a particularly large hall, extravagantly decorated with a grand staircase in the centre, leading up to a set of delicately-carved wooden doors.

_ We’ve been here before. _

‘Have we?’

_ I recognise the acoustics. Those doors must be the throne room, where I met Spleen’s brother. Wait, someone’s talking. _

She listened. He was right. Although muffled behind the doors, she could hear voices. The acuteness of her Time Lord hearing stunned her slightly, as she could hear the words quite clearly.

‘Has the boy not turned up yet?’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn asked.

‘No, sir.’

‘He will come. Keep guards on the perimeter. As soon as he shows, kill him and bring the immortal to me.’

‘Yessir.’

The door opened. Before Rose could even think about hiding, three guards stepped out of the doors and saw her.

‘Escapee!’ one of the guards shrieked. 

_ Run! _

Her dual hearts immediately dancing a double-step Charleston in her chest, Rose had only just turned when she heard the sound of a weapon discharging, and instantaneously her leg felt like it had just been detonated beneath her. She cried out and collapsed to the floor, but adrenaline was pumping through the Doctor’s body at a rate she’d never felt in her human one, and every single cell in her brain was screaming at her to get the  _ hell  _ out. So she struggled up, desperate to get away, but she could barely move her leg for the agony ...

The guards advanced, and she knew it was over.

‘We need back up!’ one of them yelled into a communicator. ‘Get up here right now!’

_ Rose! _

She desperately tried not to pass out, but the gaping void of blackness was too much to resist. She fell unconscious.

* * *

Jack and Seth followed the Doctor’s instruction, heading down every set of stairs they could find until they found the cells. It was absolutely littered with guards.

‘They’re all down here,’ Jack realised.

‘Why?’ Seth asked.

‘No idea,’ Jack confessed, but suddenly one of the guards said something and there was a wave of shouting through the crowd. Seconds later the guards were running back the way Seth and Jack were, and the immortal had to grab Seth and pull him into hiding. A tidal wave of guards ran past, until there were only a few left.

‘Something just happened,’ Jack muttered, and already knew what. He looked at Seth, who stared at him in silence. ‘He’ll be fine,’ Jack eventually said. ‘He can handle himself. Let’s get Elliott.’

Jack slipped out of their hiding place first, leading the way. He noted the two guards remaining, standing by a cell that was obscured. It had to be Elliott’s body inside.

Jack looked at Seth, signaling for the teenager to stay where he was. Then, with every ounce of assassin training he’d had as a Time Agent, the immortal crept up behind the two guards, mouthed an apology, and deliberately knocked their heads together. The two guards sank like stones to the floor, and before doing anything else, Jack gestured for Seth to grab a body and drag them into another cell, disarming them in the process.

Once the guards were secure, Jack then turned to the cell they had been guarding. He saw the person inside, and froze.

Seth followed his gaze and also stopped, wide-eyed. ‘No. How can …?’

Jack just stared. The occupant was bloody, bruised and bound, their clothes ripped, clearly having been tortured by the Va'A'gnorns to within an inch of their life. And it wasn’t Elliott.

* * *

Rose woke up slowly; dazed and confused. She found herself lying on the floor of the throne room. It took a few moments for her to raise her head to get a blurry view of what seemed like every single guard in the Va’A’gnorn mansion enclosing her in a circle, with all of their guns pointing straight at her. None of the guards reacted to her waking up, staying completely silent. 

She waited for the Doctor to tell her what to do, but he wasn’t talking. Was he gone?

She tried to move, but the movement abruptly reminded her that the Doctor had been shot in the leg and she gasped, looking down. Her leg and the floor beneath it was bloody. Clearly she’d been unconscious for a while.

Then suddenly, footsteps. She looked up to the door to see Pargeont Va'A'gnorn stepping forward from his throne, down the steps to her level.

Rose watched him as he approached her like the most terrifying self-imposed God, pulling out a gun. The look on his face meant Rose knew he was going to kill her. It was time to be the Doctor in order to save his life.

‘Need a hundred men to pin me down?’ Rose asked in her best Doctor voice. ‘I’m flattered.’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn ignored her. He finally reached her, and instinctively Rose tensed. But to her complete astonishment, he walked straight past her and continued. She watched as he stepped up to one of the guards, aimed and shot them straight through the head in one swift movement. 

‘No, stop!’ Rose cried, but Pargeont Va'A'gnorn was only just getting started. He walked along the line briefly, before raising his gun and shooting another.

‘Stop!’ Rose demanded, but he wasn’t listening. He was counting, Rose realised. Counting, and shooting every tenth guard. He was decimating. None of the guards were reacting, although the closer she watched, the more she noticed their expressions. She could see corners of their lips twitching, beads of sweat on their brows, and in their eyes was fright, despair and anger.

‘You’re just going to take this, are you?’ Rose asked the crowd. ‘You’re going to stand there?’

Silence.

‘Would someone like to explain to me just why the Time Lord is out of the cells and sitting up here in my throne room, having just strolled casually through my house?’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn said, so calmly that it was threatening.

More silence.

‘He escaped. Tens of you in that room, and he escaped from his cell. And he’s not chained up. He’s not hurt. How is he sitting in front of me with only a bullet in his leg that you put in there five seconds ago? He must have had help.’

More silence, as Rose frowned. He was talking like she’d been down in the cells. She shifted onto her hand, propping herself to sit up, still wincing and choking on her breath.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn turned to her, fixing her with a glare. ‘Don’t move, you streak of shyn’tak. How did you escape? You should be down in cells. Did someone give you nanogenes?’

Rose couldn’t  _ be _ more confused. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Do not play mind games with me, Time Lord, I know your kind. I captured you yesterday,’ he said, his calm exterior quickly beginning to vanish as his eye began to twitch.

Rose blinked. ‘Hey, I’ve been on the run for days.’

‘You have been in the cells!’ he shouted. Definitely angry now.

‘I really haven’t,’ Rose replied.

‘I tortured you for everything you’d done! I made you scream and cry and bleed!’ he roared. 

‘Well, sorry,’ she said, shrugging. ‘Wasn’t me.’

‘But it was  _ you!  _ What scam are you playing, Time Lord? I will not be a fool to your Time Lord trickery! I know your kind! I’ve  _ killed  _ your kind!’

She was about to give a sarcastic reply about needing to get some glasses, when the dots instantaneously connected and a feeling of pure horror came over her. 

He hadn’t captured that Doctor, that was for sure. But he was insistent he had. He wasn’t lying. Therefore, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn had captured and tortured a man who looked a lot like the Doctor.

And the only man who looked like the Doctor, was Zak.

* * *

‘Zak,’ Jack whispered.

‘Who’s Zak? That’s not the Doctor, is it? It can’t be,’ Seth croaked.

Jack stared at the body curled up in the cell, unmoving. It was Zak without a doubt. Jack knew him so well.

Something deeply primal inside the immortal stirred.

‘Jack?’ Seth asked.

‘This is Zak,’ Jack finally managed. ‘The Doctor’s clone. And Pargeont Va'A'gnorn is fucking dead for this.’

Seth was kneeling to Zak, reaching through the bars to his wrist to check for a pulse. There was a brief pause, before Seth quickly looked up. ‘He’s still alive,’ he said.

Jack dropped to his knees next to Seth, taking Zak’s wrist from him. There, he found a distinct thudding against his fingers.

‘Zak!’ Jack cried, immediately attempting to break open the cage.

‘Jack?’

The voice was so weak, Jack almost missed it. He dived to the bars, reaching out to touch his lover. ‘Zak, I’m here,’ he said, struggling not to cry.

‘Don’t … C-can’t b-be here,’ Zak whispered. He hadn’t moved or opened his eyes.

‘We’re okay. We’re safe. I’m getting you out. They’re not gonna hurt you anymore,’ Jack said smoothly. ‘The Doctor’s sorting ‘em out.’ 

‘N-no …’

‘Trust me. Now don’t move, okay? Just don’t move.’

He tried the door again. It was completely locked, and it was only then he remembered the key the Doctor had given him. It really was one size fits all as the key slid in perfectly and turned, the lock clicking.

Jack took Zak’s arm, making sure he wouldn’t hurt him too much as he pulled him out into the open as slowly and as carefully as he could. As soon as he was out, it revealed just how badly he was hurt. The last time Jack had seen someone like this, he’d been on the frontline.

‘Fuck, no,’ Jack muttered, trying to straighten Zak out without harming him, but everything seemed to cause him pain. In the end Jack just leant forward and kissed him, brushing back his hair.

‘S-sorry,’ Zak whispered.

‘Why did you try and land? You  _ know  _ you can’t land without permission,’ Jack said, trying to gauge all of Zak’s injuries to judge how long they had to get him help. He couldn’t even begin to estimate.

Zak still didn’t open his eyes. ‘S-saw you … in t-trouble. Hadda … hadda h-help.’

‘You beautiful, stupid man,’ Jack murmured, kissing him again. ‘C’mon. We’re escaping.’

He slid his arms under Zak, carefully lifting him. The noises he made broke Jack’s heart.

One bullet, Jack realised. He had one bullet left, and it had Pargeont Va'A'gnorn’s name chiseled into it.   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more update to go with a wad of seven. Watch this space!


	30. Showdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the Doctor detained and Jack wanting retribution for Zak, things come to head in the Throne Room.

‘You tortured and humiliated an innocent man,’ Rose said, staring at Pargeont Va'A'gnorn in horror. ‘You didn’t even check. You just saw my face and decided it was me. Never mind the different hair or clothes or personality.’

‘Well, it just looks like I’ll have to start all over again with you, doesn’t it?’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn said, smiling.

‘No, but really,’ Rose continued, ‘when his boyfriend finds his body, and he will, he’s going to hunt you down and kill you, and I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing I can do to stop him.’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn snorted with laughter. ‘Why should I care about one man? He will be killed.’

‘You  _ should  _ care, because he’s the immortal.’

For once, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn seemed to still a little.

‘Um, how  _ do  _ you kill a man who can’t die?’ Rose wondered.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn shook his head. ‘No matter.’

‘If you say so,’ Rose said, still gazing at him.

‘Perhaps you should be far more concerned with what’s going to happen to  _ you,’  _ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn suggested.

‘Not really,’ Rose said. ‘Because now I know that Jack is coming to kill you, you’ve got far more pressing matters to deal with than torturing me.’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn’s eye twitched. ‘I’ve had my fun with your lookalike. Now it’s time to get rid of you permanently.

* * *

Jack and Seth had descended to the slave area, but it was absolutely full of guards patrolling with guns. They were drastically outnumbered.

‘There’s no way we can get past them,’ Jack realised, still holding Zak, who'd passed out. His arms were aching from the weight, but he wasn’t going to let him go for anything.

‘But we’ve got to, Elliott might be in there,’ Seth said. 

‘It’s suicide,’ Jack said seriously. ‘We’ve gotta find the Doctor.’

Seth looked like he was about to protest, but clearly realised it wasn’t possible to carry on, stopped himself and started again. ‘Okay,’ he said, glancing at Zak. ‘The Doctor’ll sort it out.’

Jack nodded, and began to head back up the flights of stairs. But they’d barely ascended two flights when an access door opened and Spleen stepped right in front of them.

He double-taked, and after a moment of the group staring at each other like deer in headlights he finally drew out a gun, his eyes narrowing.

‘Fancy seeing you here,’ he said, and his eyes dropped to the body in Jack’s arm. ‘I see you found your Time Lord. We did a good job on him, didn’t we?’

Jack fumed. ‘Shut the hell up.’

‘For my brother and sister,’ Spleen spat. ‘I hope you know he screamed, cried and begged us to stop.’

‘I said shut up.’

‘Please stop! Please! It hurts!’ Spleen mimicked in a high-pitched voice, before laughing uproariously.

Jack’s inside burned with pure anger inside him. He gently lowered Zak’s broken body to the floor, and stepped over him to stand in front of Spleen.

‘Put the gun away,’ Jack said calmly.

Spleen snorted. ‘Oh, really? You expect me to?’

‘Afraid of a fight?’ Jack asked, raising his fists. ‘No guns. Just fists. You and me.’

Spleen looked at Seth. ‘This is handicapped.’

‘Seth, stand back,’ Jack said without moving his eyes from Spleen. ‘Don’t interrupt, no matter what. Got it?’

Seth paused.

‘Seth,’ Jack said again.

‘Okay,’ Seth said.

‘Promise me. Even if I’m losing. Stay with Zak.’

Seth swallowed. ‘Promise.’

‘Even fight, one-on-one,’ Jack stated to Spleen, his fists still raised. ‘Winner is the last one breathing.’

Spleen gazed at him momentarily, and then threw the gun away. He took a fighting stance, a hungry look in his eyes. Then, he lashed out.

* * *

‘If you kill me, I’ll just regenerate, you know that,’ Rose said quickly. ‘I’ll just keep coming back.’

To Rose’s surprise, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed. ‘I have permanently killed your kind before.’

‘Oh yeah? Who?’ Rose asked, desperate to try and keep him talking; hoping and praying that the Doctor would speak in her head soon.

‘A Time Lady who dared to enter Sirrus to belittle the empire,’ he said. ‘I captured her, tortured her. I tried to force a child – a glorious draconian-gallifreyan hybrid – but she would not produce one. So I hanged her from the ceiling by her neck. She suffocated, died, and regenerated over and over again, all the while begging me not to kill her. She cried, she tried to make deals with me. But I just watched her die. Seven regenerations it took until she finally stopped screaming.’

He pointed to something above the throne. Rose followed his finger, and realised that above it was the body of a woman with blonde hair, hanging by her neck, still looking fairly fresh. She instantly wanted to throw up.

‘I keep her preserved,’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn continued, smiling to himself. ‘To remind people like you that the Va’A’gnorn empire shall  _ never  _ be messed with. We shall rule forever. It has already been foretold. I shall always win. And you, Time Lord, well, you’ve already lost, haven’t you? You lost the Time War. Your entire race are dead.’

Rose’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything.

‘I have just one question for you, Time Lord. The stories say Ka Faraq Gatri destroyed Gallifrey and Skaro simultaneously at the touch of a button. You slaughtered billions of people in one second. How did that feel, Time Lord? I bet it felt  _ glorious.’ _

Rose still didn’t answer. Pargeont Va'A'gnorn smiled.

‘Now look at you, bleeding on my floor, unable to stand up or even say anything. Completely at my mercy. Your pathetic race has been wiped from the Universe, yet my dynasty goes on. My son will take my place, and you will die and make a nice ornament next to your fellow Gallifreyan.’ 

He gestured to the hanging body again. Rose didn’t look. 

‘Now, there remains the small matter of how you die. I rather enjoyed the hanging last time. I think I will do it again.’ He looked to his guards. ‘Bring me a rope.’

* * *

The fight was the most brutal Jack had ever had. Punches and kicks were flying from all directions, Jack and Spleen ducking and diving and screaming obscenities at each other in the fury of the moment. Spleen was using his claws – trying to cut Jack’s jugular – but the immortal sidestepped his slashes and managed to get a few sporadic punches in Spleen’s stomach. Only a minute into the fight, both of them were bleeding.

Spleen tried another slash at Jack’s jugular. This time, Jack didn’t move quick enough and Spleen managed to catch him on the side of the neck; just missing the vital artery. Spleen screamed in delight as the immortal stumbled backward, hand cupping his bleeding neck. Spleen then launched forward and ploughed into him, sending him to the floor with a crack of limbs.

Spleen scrambled onto Jack, gripping his throat with his claws digging into the immortal’s flesh, ready to slice through his jugular. Jack yelped, instinctively using his weight to roll the draconian onto his back and leap to his feet. Spleen did a sweeping kick which Jack had to stumble to avoid, and into the confusion Spleen threw himself at the immortal again.

This time, Jack was ready. He parried the draconian and threw him to the metal wall by his arm with as much force as he could muster. The draconian shrieked in pain as he hit the wall with a shower of cracks and slid to the floor. He tried to get up, but it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t going to.

Jack stepped forward, looming over his ex-cellmate. He placed his foot firmly on the draconian’s neck. Spleen looked up at him, his eyes wide and terrified.

'I win,' Jack grated, and tensed, ready to put the full force of his body weight on the draconian's neck. He was going to enjoy this. He could feel his heart pumping erratically in his chest as more anger surged through him at the thought of what Spleen had done to Zak flashed through his head. But he couldn't help but glance at his lover, lying there blooded and bruised beyond all measure. Jack then looked back at Spleen. The draconian was supine, staring up at him.

* * *

_ 'Don't go,' Zak reinforced. _

_ 'What are you scared of?' Jack wondered seriously. _

_ 'You hang out with 'em, you become one of 'em,' Zak replied shortly. 'They'll turn you into them, you'll become part of their world.' _

* * *

Silent seconds passed.

Finally, Jack lifted off his foot, and stood back from the draconian.

‘I’m letting you live,’ Jack grated.

‘But … I lost …’ Spleen moaned. ‘You ... should kill ... me. The rules of … of combat … dictate it.’

‘Consider yourself reborn, try to be less unpleasant this time,’ Jack said, and looked at Seth. ‘Come on.’

Seth nodded, staring at Spleen as Jack took hold of Zak again, and walked away from the defeated draconian. Suddenly Spleen moved, crying out as he lunged for his gun, still abandoned on the floor. He took it, and held it to Jack and Seth in shaking, bloody hands.

Jack gazed at him without a word. The draconian was crying now. He simply moved the gun to a point under his chin, and took a breath.

‘No, wait …’ Jack said quickly, but it was too late. Spleen pulled the trigger and shot himself. Jack looked away as the draconian’s head hit the floor, leaving the smell of the discharged weapon hanging in the air.

Without looking at Spleen, Jack turned away. ‘Seth,’ he prompted the teenager.

After a moment of staring at the body Seth finally turned and followed Jack up the next set of stairs.

* * *

Jack and Seth arrived outside the throne room, where they could hear a man laughing beyond the doors, muffled. They crept closer, pressing their ears against the wood. The laughing was of the man they had both come to abhor – Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. And there could only be one reason why he was laughing.

‘He’s got him,’ Jack muttered to Seth. ‘We’ve gotta get in there.’

‘Is there another way in?’ Seth asked.

‘Don’t know …’

Jack placed Zak down on the floor gently before grasping the handle and edging the door slightly open. He peeked through the gap, and immediately froze, his eyes wide in horror. The Doctor was hanging by a rope around his neck, unable to breath, his legs kicking out, and Pargeont Va'A'gnorn was sat in his throne, laughing and watching him.

‘What?’ Seth asked, struggling to see.

Jack pulled out his gun, his blood boiling. ‘Stay with Zak,’ he said, pushing the teenager to the side before he pulled open the door and dived through.

He emerged into the throne room with his gun aloft, pointing straight at Pargeont Va'A'gnorn. Immediately every guard turned to aim at him as the dictator looked up at the immortal, and smiled. 

‘Come to enjoy the show, Immortal?’ he asked.

Jack maintained his aim. ‘Let him go!’ he shouted, the sound of his best friend choking filling the tense silence.

‘Take aim …’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn said to his guards.

‘Shoot me if you like, I’m still gonna kill you before I hit the ground!’ Jack yelled. ‘Then I’m gonna come back and you’ll still be dead!’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn’s smile broadened. ‘Then it seems we have a stalemate.’

‘Let him  _ down!’  _ Jack almost roared.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn just stared at him, persisting with that horrific smile.

Jack’s mind raced as a blistering fast pace. Silent, anxious seconds ticked by as the Doctor stopped struggling and his breath rattled away to nothing.

He already knew what he was going to do. He only had one bullet left, which he'd been saving for the dictator, but this was more important. Jack turned his gun and shot straight through the rope holding the Time Lord. His best friend dropped to the floor like a sack of bricks, coughing and gasping for air. 

‘Doctor!?’ Jack shouted, but that was all he got to say before he was shot through the head by one of the guards, and died instantly.

* * *

‘J-Jack!’ Rose coughed out, unable to see him through her blurred vision.

‘Don’t worry, he’ll wake up momentarily,’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn said. ‘Guards, make them secure.’

‘Stop!’ a new voice shouted. It was Seth. Rose looked up, her vision slowly clearing to see him standing next to Jack’s dead body, holding Jack’s gun. She tried to get up, but her leg and neck quickly reminded her that was a silly idea. She could see blood on the floor, and she already knew it was another nosebleed, and quite a bad one.

‘No, S-Seth,’ Rose moaned, trying to wipe her face free of blood.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed at Seth. ‘Shoot me then, human.’

Seth’s eyes narrowed. ‘Where’s my brother? I’ll kill you, I swear!’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn raised an eyebrow. ‘Who?’

‘Elliott! Where is he?’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed boisterously. ‘I burnt his body this afternoon.’

Seth stiffened, his finger still on the trigger. ‘You said I could see him!’

‘Rule one, human child, people lie. Your brother died screaming in the fire with all your other underground friends.’

A look appeared on Seth’s face that Rose knew well. The face of a person about to kill the one in front of them.

‘You … You ...’ Seth stammered, his brow furrowing, the gun trembling in his hands. ‘You burnt him alive …’

‘Seth!’ Rose cried out again, still gasping. The teenager was shaking violently now. There was only anger left. ‘Don’t! Be  _ better  _ than … than him!’

‘He  _ burnt  _ him  _ alive!’  _ Seth almost shrieked.

‘I know, I’m sorry! But killing him … won’t bring Elliott back! Elliott was a doctor, he … he cured people … would he want you to kill in his name!?’

Seth hesitated, glancing at Rose. After a few, tense seconds, he lowered the gun.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed once more. ‘Pathetic. Weak, stupid humanoids. Bring me his gun.’

The guards obligingly swarmed Seth, restraining him just as Jack gasped, reviving, and he was restrained too. One of them took his gun and delivered it to Pargeont Va'A'gnorn, who took it, smiling. He then aimed it at Rose’s head. ‘I suppose I’ll have to settle with a bullet through the brain. Less entertaining, but at least it’s efficient.’

Rose’s mind raced, desperate for a delay. ‘I saw Geranda,’ she burst out, her hearts racing. ‘She told me my fortune.’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed, but said nothing as he refined his aim at the Doctor's skull.

‘Don’t you wanna know what I saw?’ Rose persisted, trying not to sound too desperate.

‘I know what you saw. You saw your own death!’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn declared, laughing.

‘No. I saw you,' she lied.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn was still laughing. ‘Yes, you saw me, killing you!’

‘No,’ Rose said. ‘I saw you falling off of the clouds.’

That made Pargeont Va'A'gnorn stop. ‘No.’

‘Then I took your place.’

‘You’re lying.’

‘No,’ Rose said, staring unblinkingly at the dictator.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn paused. ‘... No,’ he finally said, reaffirming his grip on his gun. ‘Today you die! My son shall take my place, and the empire will stand forever! It has been foretold!’

‘Spleen’s dead.’

Both Rose and Pargeont Va'A'gnorn looked up at Seth’s voice. The teenager was just standing there in the grip of the guards, staring ahead blankly. Murmurs washed through the crowd of guards.

‘How?’ Rose asked quickly.

‘He and Jack had a fight,’ Seth muttered.

‘Yeah, Spleen shot himself,’ the newly-revived Jack completed, struggling against the guards. ‘He’s dead!’

‘You will not trick me!’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn yelled.

‘Check in with him,’ Rose said quickly. ‘Check if he’s still alive.’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn’s eyes flamed. ‘I will not be deceived! You will die now, Time Lord, and become another relic of the great Va'A'gnorn Empire!’

‘Why won’t you check?’ Rose persisted. ‘Scared?’

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn eyes narrowed, before he reached down to his pocket to pull out a communicator. ‘Spleen, come in,’ he said into the box.

Silence.

‘Spleen. Come in.’

Silence.

‘This is urgent, son.’

Silence.

‘Spleehaen!’

Silence.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn just stared at the communicator, his eyes wide.

‘Your heir’s dead,’ Rose told him. ‘All of your children are dead. There’s no one to take over your empire. The Va'A'gnorn Empire is finished whether you shoot me or not.’

‘No. No. The Va'A'gnorn dynasty will rule  _ forever!  _ This is a Time Lord trick!’ Pargeont Va'A'gnorn raged.

‘Face the facts!’ Rose shouted, frustrated. ‘All your children are dead! It’s over! Bye bye!’

‘I can still kill  _ you!’  _ he screamed, aiming the gun.

‘There’s no bullets left,’ Jack suddenly said. Rose looked at him. He was grinning.

Pargeont Va'A'gnorn laughed. ‘I will not fall for that one!’ he shouted, and pulled the trigger.

Rose gasped, tensing. But the gun just clicked.

Confused, Pargeont Va'A'gnorn tried to fire again. Once more, the gun only clicked. 

‘Told you,’ Jack said, laughing.

Rose didn’t have time to comment as suddenly someone grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground as another person yelled. Almost instantaneously a deafening hail of bullets whipped over her head and she unintentionally yelped, covering her head. Seconds later, it stopped, and she dared to look up just in time to see Pargeont Va'A'gnorn’s bullet-ridden body hit the ground. All of the guards in the room lowered their guns, and stood down. One of them stooped to her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

She looked at him, confused, and then noticed the guards were also helping up Jack and Seth.

‘You killed your leader,’ Rose realised, looking at the man.

‘He’s had it coming for a while,’ the man told her. ‘Just needed that squirmy little son of his dead.’

‘Doctor!’ Jack shouted, running to her. ‘Has anyone got a medical kit?’

‘I’ll get one!’ one of the guards said, disappearing. The rest of the guards were pulling off their helmets and armour, placing their guns on the floor as Rose just laid there, and found herself beginning to laugh.

‘What’s so funny?’ Jack asked, checking her nose, which was still bleeding. ‘Doctor, your nose …’

‘It’s not the Doctor,’ Rose replied, beaming. ‘It’s me, Rose.’

Jack paused, frowning. ‘Um, what? Since when?’

‘Since the lift,’ Rose replied, still laughing. ‘I woke up there.’

‘After the seizure?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

Rose looked at him. ‘Oh c’mon, Jack, you needed the Doctor. So I pretended. Pretty good, yeah?’

Jack stared at her momentarily, before he grinned. ‘Looks like we didn’t need him then. Hey, that was impressive.’

Rose laughed again, but the laugh seemed to propel more blood out of her nose. She finally stopped laughing and looked up at Jack, wide-eyed. She opened her mouth, about to speak, when suddenly she felt cold. The Doctor's hearts in his chest started to beat faster and Louder than usual. A strange feeling rose up in her stomach, like butterflies with razor wings, and she realised she could smell metal. She tried to tell Jack, but for some reason her mouth wasn’t working. Then something seemed to flash inside her brain, and a feeling of utter terror swept up through her body from her toes to her head, like an impending doom …

_ Rose! _

_ Doctor! Help! _

But that was all she managed to think as her grip on reality fell away to nothing.


	31. Electric Brain Machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After another severe seizure, the Doctor and Rose’s lives hang in the balance. The TARDIS team race to save them and the severely injured Zak.

Jack had watched, horrified as the Doctor’s body had another seizure, and this time, he was screaming all the way through it. It happened so quickly and so violently that Jack only just got to the Time Lord in time to stop his head hitting the marble floor. 

‘Jack!’ Seth said, running to him. ‘What’s going on!?’

‘Seizure,’ Jack replied shortly, not taking his eyes off of the Doctor. After what felt like a lifetime the Doctor's body finally stopped spasming and he just laid there, his eyes closed.

Seth stooped down, pulling the Time Lord into the recovery position. Jack tried not to panic, taking off his coat to cover his best friend. He then decided on a plan of action and looked up at the ex-guards. ‘Can we control landing permissions from here?’

The ex-guards collectively nodded. ‘What ship needs permission?’ one asked.

‘Tardis, type forty,’ Jack replied. ‘Directly in this room.’

‘On it,’ he replied, and ran off. 

Jack turned to the teenager next. ‘Seth, take some people to the slave area and get everyone out.’

Seth looked at the Doctor, then nodded. He turned and bolted from the room, several ex-guards in tow.

Jack looked around at the crowd. ‘There’s a man outside, lying on the floor, badly hurt. Can someone carefully bring him in here?’

There were several nods before more guards left.

Jack looked back at the Doctor, who was shifting slightly. He knelt down immediately. ‘Doctor? Rose?’ he asked.

The Doctor’s eyes snapped to him.

‘Thank god,’ Jack breathed. ‘Are you okay?’

‘We need the Tardis, Jack,’ the Doctor said, but his head suddenly jerked, and he looked back up at the Immortal. ‘Jack, what’s goin’ on?’ he asked with Rose’s accent.

Jack frowned. ‘Rose? Is that you? Or the Doctor?’

‘It’s me, the Doctor,’ the Time Lord replied, and then his head twitched again before he refocused. ‘It’s Rose!’

Then Jack realised what was happening as the penny dropped with a nasty clatter. ‘Doctor, Rose, you’re both conscious at the same time and you’re fighting each other ...’

‘Give me the medication, left inside pocket … Jack, we’ve gotta fix him, now!’ 

Jack quickly reached inside the indicated pocket and drew out the half-filled bottle of black liquid. He opened it nervously. ‘All of it?’ he asked. 

‘Yes, quickly … Do whatever he’s sayin’!’

Jack held the Doctor’s head up, and tipped the contents of the bottle down his throat. The Doctor swallowed it without hesitation. He pulled the bottle away and winced. ‘God, what the hell did I just give you …?’

‘Tasted like jermanin buns … God, that was disgustin’.’

Despite the situation Jack couldn’t help but smile at that. ‘I’ll get the Tardis here,’ he said, just as the Doctor had another violent convulsion and just laid there, not moving an inch. ‘Doctor? Rose?’ he tried, but neither of them were responding. He took a breath, lifting his palm to his mouth, which the communicator was still secreted in. ‘Brax, come in.’

_ ‘Here,’  _ Brax’s voice replied. _ ‘How is he?’ _

Jack ignored that. ‘We need the Tardis here now. Va'A'gnorn Palace. You’ve got landing permissions.’

_ ‘On my way.’ _

* * *

The Doctor’s head was spinning like he’d taken a large amount of nitrous oxide and sat on the fastest ride in the fairground. He was catching glimpses of Brax, Jack, and everyone else around him, but he was also paralysed and couldn’t move. He was marginally aware of being in different places; first the palace, then the console room, then the infirmary – lying on a bed surrounded by a lot of people.

‘They are fighting to be the dominant consciousness,’ Brax was saying, his face large and looming over him; the world bright, big and slightly terrifying. ‘If we don’t do something, we’ll lose one of them for sure.’

‘Save Rose,’ the Doctor tried to say, but he couldn’t move his mouth to form the words.

‘Let me have a look,’ Brax said, pressing his fingers to the Doctor’s temples. Almost immediately the Doctor felt the intrusion, like an elephant stomping around his head, struggling to get his bearings. The Doctor was hardly in a position to keep his shields up, so thoughts and memories of both him and Rose were flying at Brax like an enthusiastic child throwing balls at a coconut shy. Brax was swooping and winding around the assailing thoughts and memories; a rollercoaster struggling to keep on the track. 

‘I think I’ve found Rose,’ a male voice said, one which the Doctor could no longer place a name to. ‘Whatever he drank, it’s ungelled her from him. But I don’t know how to get her out.’

‘He’s bleeding again,’ a different male voice said.

‘Knock him out,’ a woman said.

‘What?’ 

‘Look, they’re fighting for consciousness. What if we made him unconscious? We’ll keep him monitored, and then we can work on Zak. He needs emergency care right now. We can try and figure out the Doctor when we’ve got more time to think.’

‘Okay, we’ll do that,’ said the first voice. ‘Get something to put him under.’

The Doctor immediately felt very vulnerable, and utterly terrified. Finally he seemed to get some of the feeling of his body back, and he impulsively began to struggle – trying to get away. Someone pinned him down, which made him panic even more.

‘Doctor! Just relax!’

‘We’re helping you, stay still!’

‘I’ve got the sedative.’

‘Get it in him!’

Something cold pressed against his neck and hissed. He continued to struggle, but found himself slowing down until he couldn’t move again. 

‘Is he out?’

‘No. Increase the dose.’

Another hiss. He was then paralysed again, and barely able to think.

‘He’s still not out.’

‘Increase the dose.’

‘We’re in the danger zone. He can’t take much more than this.’

‘Okay, don’t risk it ... Thete? Can you hear me?’

The Doctor tried to reply, but he still couldn’t move a single muscle.

_ Thete. Please answer. _

He tried to, but he couldn’t seem to organise his thoughts enough to telepathically reply.

‘He’s not answering, I think he’s gone.’

‘Okay, let’s sort out Zak.’

* * *

Seth made it to the slave area with his new friends in tow. One of them announced Pargeont Va'A'gnorn’s death to the entire area through the PA system. There was a chorus of deafening cheering, laughing and the slaves’ one-time captors helping them up. But Seth couldn’t feel the joy.

He’d spent most of the journey to and from the slave area wondering what he would do now Elliott was dead. He imagined there would be a new order and a new world for the underground people, filled with shops, schools and hospitals – stuff Elliott had said was on their home world, but he didn’t feel part of it. There would be no call for his skills as a thief, and he didn’t know enough about medicine to be a doctor. He was too physically weak to help with rebuilding, and he couldn’t cook.

He  _ could  _ go to school to learn how to read and write, but it seemed a little pointless. He had no particular ambition, and now he had no one who was waiting for him to come home. No one to talk to. No one to rely on him. Elliott had been the one everyone went to see and talk to. He was always just Elliott’s little brother. Now he wasn’t even that.

‘Seth!’

Seth looked up to see Kyeeta, the chef, running towards him. She met him in a hug.

‘Oh, Seth,’ she murmured, rubbing his back. ‘I’m so sorry. But he saved us, all of us. Va'A'gnorn threatened to gas out the underground and kill the children in here if Elliott didn’t do what he said,’ she explained, pulling back to gaze at him. ‘He’s a hero.’

‘Yeah,’ Seth muttered, trying not to cry. But it was no use. The tears fell abruptly, and then he was shaking in her arms as she held him again.

‘It’ll be okay,’ she said. 

‘I-I don’t …’ he began but couldn’t get the words out on his first try. He tried again. ‘I d-don’t know what t-to do now.’

‘We’ll look after you,’ she told him. ‘For Elliott.’

That was it, Seth mused. He was now the little brother of a hero; a little brother that needed to be looked after.

* * *

Tense hours passed in the TARDIS. Brax and Martha had quickly whisked Zak into surgery with Gwen and Mickey to help, and as the only one left with knowledge of treating wounds, Jack had opted to stay in the infirmary to tend to the apparently unconscious Doctor.

He cleaned and bandaged the wound and checked for any damage to his neck, but it was all superficial bruising. He then made the Doctor comfortable before he took a seat next to the bed, staring at the Time Lord blindly. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about Zak. The looks Brax and Martha had had when they’d whisked him into surgery were enough to tell Jack just how serious it was. He’d already known – of course he’d known – just how badly he was hurt, but now he couldn’t stop imagining Zak dying. 

He could see Brax and Martha walking out of the surgery, their hands in their hands. He could see himself staring at Zak’s lifeless, destroyed body under a cold plastic sheet. He could see everyone standing around in black, throwing flowers onto the coffin at the funeral.

The doors of the operating room suddenly opened, and Jack jumped up as though he’d just been electrocuted by the chair. Everyone was there in masks and surgical garb, wheeling out a bed. Jack hesitated, but on Ianto’s thumb up he bolted straight to the bed, staring down at Zak. He was looking a lot cleaner than he had before, although he had several bandages and casts, and was attached to quite a few tubes and wires.

‘Is he okay?’ Jack asked anxiously.

‘He’ll be fine, as long as there’s no complications,’ Brax replied. ‘Gallifreyan bodies have a tendency to bounce back.’

Jack smiled and kissed Zak’s forehead as they wheeled the bed into place and Brax connected him up to several machines. Jack sat beside him immediately, taking his hand gently.

‘Any problems with the Doctor?’ Martha asked.

Jack shook his head. ‘He’s been quiet.’

Brax moved to his brother, placing his fingers on his temple and closing his eyes. He remained still for a few, silent seconds before pulling back.

‘I tried to speak to him inside his mind, but he’s not responding,’ he announced, taking his brother’s wrist. ‘Pulse is fine.’ He checked both his hearts next. ‘Steady, both going.’

‘Any ideas?’ Martha asked, looking at Brax.

He paused, thinking. ‘Her consciousness is now dislodged from his. We need something to transfer her back to her body. A psychograft might work now. She was too well cemented before.’

‘What’s a psychograft?’

‘It takes the consciousness of someone and puts it inside the body of another,’ Brax explained to Martha. ‘Usually the second consciousness compresses the original consciousness to death, but in Rose’s case she’s already empty, so there should be no ill effects. We will have to keep an eye on her, as well as Thete.’

‘This sounds dangerous,’ Martha mused.

‘The only other option I can see is a heavily modified mind probe.’

Jack stood up immediately. ‘No. Not in a million years. He can’t defend himself from a mind probe when he’s like this.’

‘Psychograft, then,’ Brax concluded. ‘We will need to locate one. Keep him under sedation.’

* * *

It took a while, but Leah and Alex waited patiently until the commotion was over before they crept into the infirmary together. Their gran was asleep in a chair beside their mum, so they tip-toed past and continued to their dad. Using a combination of a stool and each other, they jumped up and commenced poking him.

‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,’ Leah said, jabbing her finger into his cheek. ‘Daddy. Wake up.’

He didn’t respond. Leah frowned, continuing to prod him. He still didn’t move.

Leah looked at Alex, who pointed at their dad’s head. Leah nodded, and pressed her fingers to his temples.

‘Daddy,’ she whispered out loud, trying to speak to him in his head. ‘Daddy.’

‘No,’ Alex said shortly. Leah obediently moved out of the way to allow him to try, and the moment he put his fingers on his dad’s temples their dad gasped, his eyes shooting open.

‘What …’ he began, struggling to focus.

‘Hi,’ Leah said, hugging him immediately, along with Alex. He looked confused. ‘Are you okay?’ she ended up asking at his expression.

‘What time is it?’ he asked in a South London accent.

‘Um … 10pm, isn’t your time sense working?’ Leah replied, pulling back to look at him. His eyes looked glazed over. ‘Daddy?’

‘Why did you wake me up so late?’ he asked, staring at no one.

‘Everyone was worried so me and Alex sneaked down here and …’

‘What’s wrong with Granddad?’

‘Um, what?’

‘But he can’t be dead. He only came over yesterday.’

Leah bit her lip, looking at Alex. ‘Err …’

‘He said he was gonna take me to Piccadilly Circus on Saturday,’ the Doctor continued.

‘Daddy, wake up,’ Leah demanded, standing up on the bed to hold his shoulders, shaking him slightly.

‘No, please don’t cry,’ he said, oblivious to being shaken.

Leah looked at Alex, biting her lip. He jumped off of the bed and ran out of the door immediately.

‘Don’t ditch me!’ Leah moaned, but he was already gone. She looked back at her dad. He was crying, now.

‘Don’t cry, cos when you cry, I cry,’ he said.

‘Daddy,’ Leah moaned, waving a hand in front of his eyes. ‘Wake up.’

‘It’s okay, cos Granddad’s in Heaven now,’ he said next.

‘Leah!’ came a hiss from behind her, and she turned to see her gran, now awake and standing behind her, hands on her hips. ‘What did you do?’

‘Nothing,’ Leah replied quickly. 

‘He was being kept sedated, he –’

‘He was a good person and all good people go to Heaven, that’s what Miss Birch said,’ the Doctor interrupted Jackie.

‘Oh my God,’ Jackie realised, hand over her mouth. ‘I don’t believe it. Rose?’

‘So don’t worry about him cos he’s happy and he’s not sick anymore,’ the Doctor added. He was still crying.

‘Oh, sweetheart,’ Jackie breathed, moving in to hug him. ‘It’s okay.’

‘What’s going on?’ Jack yelled as he came running into the infirmary with Alex and Brax in tow.

‘I didn’t do anything!’ Leah said innocently, jumping off of the bed.

‘It’s Rose, she’s having some kinda flashback,’ Jackie said. ‘She’s havin’ the conversation we had when her granddad died … Just her half of it.’

Brax checked his brother’s temple immediately. ‘We need to put him back under.’

‘He’s already on enough to down a horse,’ Jack said, checking the IV lines.

‘He’s stopped,’ Jackie interrupted. Everyone looked, just as the Doctor moved again.

‘Arehc’ei’arijec, Glospin,’ the Doctor suddenly said in Gallifreyan, looking scared, but determined.

Jackie pulled back, not understanding the gallifreyan. ‘What did he say?’

‘Ei’poha’afa kyla!’ the Doctor continued, panicking now. ‘Jishh’ei’berr!’

Leah looked at her uncle, confused.

‘Don’t listen,’ Brax said to her, a little anxious.

‘But he’s …’

‘Koshh’qe!’ the Doctor yelled.

‘What’s he sayin’?’ Jackie asked, worried.

‘He’s saying that …’ Leah began, but Brax stopped her.

‘He’s now in his own childhood,’ he stated. ‘If we can’t sedate him we need to get him to a psychograft, now.’

‘Qe’wi-all, Glospin!’ the Doctor yelled. 

‘But we haven’t found one yet,’ Jack said anxiously.

‘Koshh’qe!’

‘Get him to the console room,’ Brax ordered as he took out all of Rose’s tubes and wires in three seconds flat, before picking her up and running with her.

‘N-ei’holl’koshh’qe!’ the Doctor demanded as Jack took hold of him and Jackie found a hoverchair.

‘What’s he saying?’ Jackie asked Leah.

‘He’s shouting at someone called Glospin to let him go,’ Leah said, confused. ‘Uncle Jack, who’s Glospin?’

‘No idea,’ Jack confessed.

‘Jahi’eon’afa’besha’ei!?’

‘C’mon,’ Jack prompted, running with the Time Lord out of the infirmary and down the corridor to the console room. There was a jolt, and a distance surge of engines. Brax had put the TARDIS into motion.

Suddenly the Doctor tensed. ‘Fo! Wi-fo! Iviv-o! Naqu, Glospin, wi-naqq! Ei’alimka ye ce’ayiak!’ he failed, and let out a cry. ‘Glospin!’

They made it to the console room, where Brax was already running to the doors holding Rose just as the Doctor yelped and cried out in pain, his entire body jerking.

‘Ei’wi-riiala, ei’holah-o’cejoi-n … Fo! Wi-fo! Lei-o’arehc’ei vivi! Lei-o’oglab qe! Wi-naqu! Glospin!’

Brax beckoned quickly. Jack followed him out of the doors and into a room carved in stone, with fires breaking out everywhere and the sounds of lasers and ships screaming overhead. The room was shaking from a nearby bomb blast.

‘Ai-naqu …’ the Doctor whined, crying.

‘Where are we?’ Jack asked as Brax began to run again.

‘Glospin! Innocet! Badger!’ the Doctor cried out pleadingly.

‘Planet of the Ontarions!’ Brax shouted over the noise as Jack followed, Leah in tow. ‘They were scholars and inventors, they invented the psychograft, but their planet was detonated by the Parquons in a war – this one! We’ve got six minutes before the planet explodes!’ Brax shouted as he turned a corner.

‘Oh, that long?’ Jack commented insincerely, looking at the Doctor. He’d gone silent, looking terrified and shaking. The building had another violent judder. The immortal sped up, pursuing Brax until they eventually emerged into a half-destroyed room filled with technology. 

Brax set Rose down on the floor. ‘Stay here while I look!’ he shouted, and ran off.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Jack muttered, checking the Doctor. He’d stopped shaking, and was now just staring blankly ahead. Jack waved a hand in front of his eyes, but he didn’t respond. ‘Stay with us, Doc.’

‘R-Rolas,’ he suddenly said, his eyes staring through the immortal. ‘Ei’besha-o.’

‘What did he say?’ Jack asked, looking at Leah.

‘He’s talking to you, Uncle Jack,’ Leah said. ‘He said he can’t move.’

‘Tell him we’ll fix him.’

‘Kai’afa’kola, pohh-n,’ Leah said quickly.

‘Fo, fo, tera qe’afa’wi-ayiak,’ the Doctor replied, clearly terrified.

‘He said it’s really dark,’ Leah translated.

‘It’s gonna be over soon, Brax is finding the psychograft right now, you’re gonna be okay,’ Jack said firmly, resting a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder.

‘Qe’afa’eloli-n itra, Weepo-Brax’afa’eril … eee…’ Leah hesistated mid-translation, wide-eyed. ‘I dunno the word for psychograft! Eee … nezy’to‘togri …?’

‘Rolas, saral’Liala-n, wi-naqu,’ the Doctor said next, looking desperate.

‘He said to save mummy,’ Leah translated, terrified now.

‘No, no one is getting priority,’ Jack shot back without hesitation. ‘Both of you are gonna survive.’

‘Fo, nijec’afa wila cege. Eon-ia’kari-n,’ Leah said.

The Doctor’s entire body jerked, bleeding from his nose again. ‘What?’ he suddenly asked. ‘I don’t understand! Jack, save the Doctor!’

‘Rose,  _ no one _ is getting priority!’ Jack snapped just as Brax yelled something from the distance. Jack took hold of the hoverchair again and followed his voice to a machine with two chairs in it, coated with wires. Brax was already wiring the comatose Rose into one of the chairs, putting some sort of headpiece on her and securing her in. The infrastructure of the room was beginning to collapse around their heads now, the room shaking again from another blast.

‘Put him there!’ Brax ordered, pointing at the second chair. Jack obliged as Leah just stood there, terrified. With some more help from Brax, they managed to jam the headpiece onto the Doctor and get him locked in. Seconds later, Brax was at the controls.

‘No time for safety checks,’ Brax said, his fingers a blur across the keyboard. ‘Three … two …’

‘What!’ Jack cried.

Brax didn’t even pause at Jack’s protest. ‘... One … Activating.’

Everyone had to shield their eyes as the entire room suddenly seemed to explode with blue and red light, completely consuming the Doctor and Rose. It lasted for only a few seconds, but they seemed excruciatingly long before the light disappeared and Rose and the Doctor were left hanging limply in the chairs.

‘Did it work?’ Jack asked, poised to move forward at Brax’s command.

‘No idea, but we have three minutes until the planet is completely destroyed, we need to get out of here back to –’ Brax stopped himself mid-sentence, his eyes widening. ‘Take cover!’ he suddenly yelled, just as there was a massive explosion from the right, and debris began to fly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arehc’ei’arijec, Glospin - Leave me alone, Glospin  
> Ei’poha’afa kyla! Jishh’ei’berr! - My father is near! Let me go!  
> Koshh’qe! - Stop it!  
> Qe’wi-all, Glospin! - That really hurts, Glospin!  
> N-ei’holl’koshh’qe! - I said stop it!  
> Jahi’eon’afa’besha’ei!? - Where are you taking me!?  
> Fo! Wi-fo! Iviv-o! Naqu, Glospin, wi-naqq! Ei’alimka ye ce’ayiak! - No! No! Please, Glospin, please! I’m scared of the dark!  
> Ei’wi-riiala, ei’holah-o’cejoi-n … Fo! Wi-fo! Lei-o’arehc’ei vivi! Lei-o’oglab qe! Wi-naqu! - I swear I won’t tell anyone! No! No! Don’t leave me here! Don’t close that! Please!  
> Eee … nezy’to‘togri - Umm … electric brain machine!


	32. Jebba and Chips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After using the psychograft, the group return to the TARDIS. On Sirrus, Seth struggles to decide what to do without his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's basically one big hugfest, but that's okay, hugging's fun :D

The Doctor woke up with a gasp, as though someone had just thrown a bucket of cold water over him. His eyes snapped open, and he found himself in a chair with something cold and heavy on his head. In front of him was a pile of concrete – he’d obviously been shielded from being crushed by the machine he was in. Above him he could hear the sound of ships and lasers in a full-blown war. 

The last thing he remembered was Pargeont being shot in the mansion when Rose had been controlling him, and as such he had no idea where he was. But wherever he was, it was clear that he needed to get out, and fast.

He tried to move, but abruptly realised that his wrists were cuffed to the chair. With a few hearty jerks, the rusted metal came away from its fixing and his right arm was free. He quickly undid the left cuff, and then removed what was on his head. It was a helmet of some kind, pulsating with multi-coloured lights and wired into the machine. Psychograft, he realised. And from that, he knew that other people couldn’t be far away.

‘Brax! Jack!’ he shouted, but the sounds of the war were too loud for him to even hear himself. ‘Rose,’ he tried next, but there was nothing but silence in his head. Was she gone?

He pushed himself up, just about stopping himself from standing on his bad leg when it fired through with a warning pain, and he remembered being shot. He searched for a gap to get out of the concrete, and saw a small one to his right. Carefully he ducked and slipped through, emerging in a plume of dust, coughing.

‘Anyone?’ he shouted.

‘Thete!’ It was Brax, somewhere in the room. ‘Rose is in the psychograft, Jack and Leah are somewhere in the pile! We’ve got two minutes!’

The Doctor’s hearts raced as he realised that the place had probably collapsed right where Leah and Jack had been standing. ‘Leah!’ he cried. ‘Leah, can you hear me? It’s Dad!’

‘Daddy!’ a small cry came from somewhere in the concrete. ‘Help!’

‘Keep shouting!’ he told her, moving in the direction of her voice.

‘Help!’

He neared the voice, and started removing the rubble. Soon Brax joined him, and wordlessly they lugged the heavy slabs of concrete away without pause, the Doctor desperate to get to his daughter, until they found a mess of black hair. It was Jack.

‘Jack?’ the Doctor asked quickly, still shifting the debris. 

‘Daddy!’

That made the Doctor move faster, practically throwing the heavy broken concrete five metres across the room. Finally he and Brax managed to get the gap large enough to pull out Jack. He was clearly dead, having dived over Leah to save her. Brax held him back enough for the Doctor to reach in and pull his daughter out, deliberately shielding her gaze from Jack’s crushed body. They met in a hug, the four-year-old in tears.

‘Are you okay? Are you hurt?’ the Doctor asked anxiously.

She coughed, but shook her head. ‘Okay,’ she said, clinging onto him.

‘Breathe in and out, measured and slow,’ the Doctor ordered her, kissing her forehead.

‘Thete, forty seconds,’ Brax told him.

‘Get Jack out,’ the Doctor ordered his brother. Brax grabbed Jack and dragged him back in the direction of the TARDIS, disappearing around the corner. The Doctor set Leah to the floor. ‘Leah, run back to the Tardis, quick.’

‘Daddy,’ she wailed.

‘I’m right behind you!’ he shouted, and – reluctantly – she ran off.

He turned back to where the psychograft was hidden behind the concrete. Thirty-three seconds left, he mentally calculated. He didn’t know what until as Brax hadn’t specified, but in his 900 years he couldn’t remember many countdowns ending in something nice.

‘Rose!’ he shouted, limping as best he could over the mountain, choking in the dust. More of the room was caving in around him, but that wasn’t going to make him stop. ‘Rose!’

In his rush he stepped on a loose piece of concrete, causing him to drastically wobble and have to leap to a safe place. He managed to land on his good foot, steadying himself on the nearest solid object. Twenty seconds left.

‘R-Rose!’ he called again, still coughing from the dust. ‘A-answer me!’

Eighteen seconds.

Suddenly, he felt a hand slip into his. He turned, startled, to find Rose balancing precariously on the debris, staring at him with wide, happy eyes. 

For a moment they just stared at each other, mystified, before Rose grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him towards her, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him. Another explosion rang out, but neither of them noticed.

Finally they pulled back, and instinctively held hands again. They both knew exactly what to say next.

‘Run!’

Of course, it was less running and more stumbling, and in the Doctor’s case, limping and hopping, but they didn’t care. He helped her over the piles and she helped him run, through the destroyed room and straight towards the waiting blue box. Brax met them on the outside, grabbing their arms and yanking them ins, and they both toppled to the floor as Brax slammed the door shut. Seconds later, there was a slightly muted massive explosion that was powerful enough to make the TARDIS jolt.

The Doctor sat up. ‘Ah. So  _ that’s  _ what the countdown was until.’

‘Couldn’t have cut it finer, could you?’ Brax wondered sarcastically.

‘Be no fun otherwise,’ Rose insisted with a grin, helping her husband to his feet just in time for Leah to meet them.

‘Mummy! Daddy!’

‘Hello,’ Rose said, dropping to her haunches to hold her daughter for the first time in months as the Doctor struggled to get the concrete dust off of himself. ‘Oh god, I missed you.’

‘Are you fixed now?’ Leah asked, Rose kissing her forehead.

‘We will have to do some scans to check they are both okay,’ Brax said from the side, but his input was immediately forgotten as the console room was instantaneously flooded with people.

_ ‘Rose!’  _ Jackie suddenly shrieked at a pitch high enough to summon bats, running to her daughter and hugging her tightly, kissing her cheek. ‘I don’t bloody believe it! It worked!’

‘Hi, Mum,’ Rose said, laughing joyously.

‘Are you okay, sweetheart? That’s really you, innit?’

‘Yeah, it’s really me!’ Rose replied.

‘Oh, I love you!’ Jackie told her, holding her tightly before she pulled back and looked at the Doctor. ‘Oh, you beautiful man, you! C’mere!’ she cried, turning to the Doctor and grabbing him, planting kisses all over his face before he could escape.

‘No, no, just … just put me down!’ the Doctor protested as everyone laughed.

‘You’re okay now?’ Martha asked when Jackie finally pulled away.

The Doctor nodded, wiping his face where Jackie had kissed him, looking disgusted. Martha met him in a hug, Mickey following to hug Rose. The Doctor quickly noticed that he could barely get his arms around Martha. ‘Wait,’ he realised. ‘You’re  _ still  _ pregnant?’ 

Everyone immediately winced, tensing. The Doctor got the distinct feeling he’d strolled casually into a no-go area as the heavily-pregnant lady drew back and gazed at him, her eyes on fire.

‘No, I thought I’d shove a melon up my shirt,’ she replied sarcastically.

‘Here it comes,’ Mickey muttered.

‘Don’t you bloody start!’ Martha snapped.

‘C’mon, calmin’ exercises, do the breath thing …’ Mickey tried. ‘Like that video said.’

‘I’ll shove that video right up your –’

‘Alex!’ the Doctor yelled suddenly, desperate to stop the argument he could feel heading their way. ‘Where’s Alex?’

‘Mummy, Daddy,’ Alex suddenly said. It was so quiet, but the sound of his voice was enough to shut everyone up. He ran forward to meet his dad, mum and sister for a family group hug. 

The Doctor looked up at the rest of the group. ‘Where’s Kiana?’

‘Asleep,’ Gwen told him.

‘Zak? Is he okay?’

‘He’s mending,’ Brax replied. ‘Induced coma at the moment.’

A loud strangled gasp cued Jack’s timely revival, the immortal bolting upright to fling off the blanket Brax had thrown on him to disguise his injuries. Newly healed, he stood up, and the Doctor immediately moved to him, hugging him. After a moment he pulled back, gazing at Jack with utter gratitude.

‘You saved her life,’ the Doctor told him. ‘Thank you.’

Jack shrugged nonchalantly. ‘I wouldn’t let anything hurt your daughter, you know that.’ He looked at Leah. ‘You okay?’

She beamed, running to him to hug his leg. ‘Yeah. Thanks! I love you, Uncle Jack.’

Jack grinned, dropping to hug her in return. ‘Love you too.’

‘Are we having dinner now?’ Leah asked, looking back up at her parents, turning on a sixpence. Everyone laughed.

‘Yeah,’ the Doctor said, nodding. ‘What do you fancy?’

‘Jebba and chips!’ Leah replied happily.

‘Jebba and chips it is,’ the Doctor confirmed. 

‘We’ll get the table set up!’ Leah said, grabbing her brother’s hand and pulling him out of the room as the last few people hugged the Doctor and Rose, saying their piece before filtering away to get ready for dinner, leaving Brax, Jack, the Doctor, Rose and Jackie.

The Doctor looked back at Rose, who was gazing at him. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘Need a word with you two,’ she said, grabbing the Doctor’s shirt and Jack’s arm, marching them through the far door. The Doctor looked at Jack. He’d learnt to recognise Rose’s serious face when he saw it. 

She led them out of the console room and into the nearest room, which happened to be the library. The door closed, Rose spun around to face them, and she slapped the Doctor across the face.

‘Ow!’ the Doctor yelped, hand on his cheek. ‘What was that for?’

‘You want a  _ list!?’  _ she asked seriously.

‘Good point,’ the Doctor conceded, wincing.

‘I don’t care that it’s dangerous, cos it’s always dangerous, but you bloody outright  _ lied  _ to me about Sirrus!’ she snapped.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘You didn’t tell me how bad it was, you let me find out when you were locked in a cage with Jack bein’ tortured in another room!’

‘You’d have talked me out of going,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘I needed to fix you.’

‘Was it worth it, then?’ Rose snapped. ‘Bein’ a slave, hearin’ Jack get tortured, and killin’ him!?’

‘I didn’t mind,’ Jack said seriously.

‘You!’ She turned to Jack, pointing an accusatory finger. ‘You kept  _ punching  _ him, in the face! You tied him up!’

‘He made me, he said you were okay with it!’ Jack protested.

‘Sure, my favourite bit was when you punched him way harder than you needed to!’ she yelled.

‘You did  _ what!?’  _ Jackie’s voice shrieked from the doorway. No one had noticed she’d followed them. She strolled straight up to Jack, and slapped him. ‘You don’t punch my son-in-law!’

‘It’s okay, I told him to,’ the Doctor said, but nobody was listening to him.

‘You made him bruise and bleed!’ Rose snapped at the immortal. ‘You knocked him out!’

‘I …’ Jack began, but was slapped around the face by Jackie again.

‘You ever lay another  _ finger  _ on ‘im then you’d better  _ bloody  _ watch out!’ Jackie yelled.

‘Doctor, help,’ Jack whined, his hand on his cheek.

‘I  _ really  _ think everyone needs to just …’ the Doctor began, but Jackie was all over him again, checking his face.

‘Are you okay, sweetheart?’ she asked anxiously.

‘Jackie, I’m fine,’ the Doctor said seriously, before turning to Rose. ‘Rose.’ He cupped her face in both hands. She sagged immediately, turning from angry to upset with his touch.  _ ‘ _ Rose,  _ anything  _ is worth you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Sirrus, but it was the only way I could get you back in your body.’

‘I thought you were gonna die all over again,’ she said, her voice breaking. 

‘I know, I know,’ the Doctor murmured, kissing her forehead. ‘But I didn’t. I am  _ really  _ sorry. Forgive me?’

Rose sighed. ‘Of course I forgive you. Just needed sayin’ that it’s never  _ ever  _ happenin’ again, okay?’

The Doctor and Jack both nodded.

‘Good,’ Rose said, hugging them both. She wiped at her eyes, sniffed, and then smiled. ‘Dinner?’ she asked, taking the Doctor’s hand.

‘That’s it?’ the Doctor asked, surprised.

‘Shut up!’ Jack muttered, elbowing him.

‘What did you say?’ Jackie demanded to know, gazing at the Doctor.

‘Nothing,’ the Doctor murmured, looking at Jack, who nodded.

‘Let’s get dinner, then,’ Rose said.

‘Wait,’ the Doctor said. ‘Need to delay dinner a bit.’

‘Why?’

‘Seth.’

* * *

Seth was in the Va'A'gnorn mansion, standing in the doorway. The body of Pargeont Va'A'gnorn had been cleaned up, and the body of the Time Lady had been taken down and covered with a sheet, ready for the Doctor to deal with. But Seth had a sneaking suspicion that the Doctor wasn’t coming back. That was the legend, after all. The Doctor came, saved people, and didn’t stick around to clean up the mess. Seth supposed he would have to bury the Time Lady.

Suddenly there was an unworldly noise, like a rusty lever being turned, and a breeze that seemed to come from nowhere. Seconds later a strange blue box began to fade in and out with a light pulsating on top, slowly becoming more solid, until there was a loud thunk, the light stopped, and the box was solid.

‘What the …?’ Seth muttered.

The door creaked open, and a blonde woman stepped out. Seth hesitated, still trying to decide whether to run or not, when the woman smiled at him.

‘Seth!’ she greeted. ‘It’s me, Rose.’

‘... Rose?’ Seth echoed, wide-eyed. ‘He got fixed …?’

‘Yeah,’ she said, just as the Doctor himself limped out behind her, propped up on a crutch for his leg. He gave a wave and a smile.

‘You came back,’ Seth realised.

‘You don’t have to sound so surprised,’ the Doctor replied, sitting down on the step next to the blue box. He gestured for Seth to take a seat beside him. Seth moved over, finding himself between the Doctor and Rose.

‘What is that? How did it do that? I mean, it just appeared,’ Seth said, pointing at the blue box.

The Doctor grinned. ‘She’s called the Tardis,’ he said proudly. ‘She’s my ship.’

‘I’ve heard about the Tardis, I thought it was bigger,’ Seth mused. They both laughed at that, Seth didn’t know why. ‘I thought you weren’t coming back,’ he said to the Time Lord.

‘Why not?’ the Doctor asked.

‘You never stick around. You just go.’

The Doctor pulled a face. ‘Probably true. Well, not this time. Where are the slaves?’

‘They’re out,’ Seth said, before his gaze dropped to the floor. ‘Elliott’s definitely dead.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Rose said, hugging the boy.

‘She said … she said that he had to do what Va'A'gnorn said else he’d gas out the underground and kill all … kill all the children he’d imprisoned,’ Seth said, struggling to hold it together.

‘Then he’s a hero,’ Rose said.

Seth sighed. ‘They found his ... body but I didn’t wanna look. They said it was all … it was all charred up. I dunno. I didn’t know whether I should’ve looked. Should I have looked?’

Rose hugged him tighter. ‘Not if you didn’t want to,’ she said firmly.

‘I d-dunno what to do now,’ Seth muttered.

‘You could always come with us,’ the Doctor said.

Seth looked up, wide-eyed. ‘Um, what?’

‘Come with us,’ Rose reinforced. 

‘You mean … live with you?’

‘Yeah,’ Rose said. ‘On the Tardis. There’s loads of room.’

‘But … where would we go?’ Seth asked.

‘We travel through time and space,’ Rose told him. ‘Wherever and whenever we wanna go.’

‘Though it can be dangerous,’ the Doctor added. ‘Don’t think it’s easy.’

Seth looked at him, his eyes narrowing. ‘Are you doing this cos of Elliott? Did he tell you to do this?’

‘People don’t  _ tell  _ me to do anything. Elliott suggested it and I’m deciding it’s a good idea. I’d like you to come with us. You’re smart, brave, calm in a crisis and I wouldn’t worry about you,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Elliot said that you deserved better, and I agree with him.’

Seth fell silent. Just as the TARDIS door opened and out came Leah, looking annoyed.

‘Daddy!’ she moaned, running to him and tugging on his trouser leg. ‘You said we were getting food! Hurry up! I wanna tell you about Colossus Major!’

‘Leah,’ Rose said sharply.

‘Oh, sorry, I mean get food now,  _ please! _ ’ she said hastily, then smiled and bunched her fists in her shirt, pulling the ‘adorable’ card to try and eradicate her bad behaviour. She then noticed Seth. ‘Hi!’ she greeted, sticking out her hand. ‘I’m Leah.’

‘Seth,’ the teenager replied, slightly bewildered as he shook the proffered hand.

‘Seth’s tryin’ to decide whether he wants to come with us,’ Rose told the girl.

‘Well hurry up cos I’m hungry and we were getting jebba and chips,’ Leah said.

Seth laughed, and after a brief moment, nodded. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I’ll come. Not like I’ve got anything left here.’

‘Good!’ the Doctor said, getting up. Leah squealed in delight and ran back into the TARDIS at the speed of light.

‘What are we doing about the Time Lady?’ Seth asked, pointing at the sheet-covered body.

‘We’ll give her a funeral,’ the Doctor said, looking a bit sad. ‘It’s the least we can do.’

Rose stood up, Seth following. ‘Oh, and what’s jebba?’ he asked seriously.

‘A fish. Well, not really a fish. Well, a meaty sort of fish,’ the Doctor replied. ‘From the planet Kleepos in the 78th century. Little corner takeaway on 28th Street does some great dips. Shall we?’


	33. The Funeral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Tardis dwellers hold a funeral for the Time Lady as Seth struggles to adapt to his new environment.

The Doctor was keeping a close eye on Seth as the teenager sat with them to eat their 78th century takeaway. He’d been introduced and the TARDIS occupants were all talking to him, though he was clearly bewildered by everyone and everything around him. A human teenager who’d grown up in poverty on a planet in the year six billion and eighty-six was now sitting in the company of humans from his ancient history, in a room full of objects that made no sense to him, eating food he’d never seen before. It had to be disconcerting.

He was looking at everyone in turn, being very polite. ‘So you’re from …?’

‘21st century Earth,’ Martha said kindly.

‘That’s so weird,’ Seth murmured, and looked at Jack. ‘And you’re 51st century, right?’

‘Yep.’ 

‘But … I’ve seen texts from Post-Modern Earth, I don’t understand the language. How are we all talking?’ 

‘It’s the Tardis, she’s translatin’ us for you, and you for us,’ Rose explained. ‘She gets inside your head.’

‘Right,’ Seth said, still seeming incredibly nervous. He looked at the Doctor, who offered the most reassuring smile he could with his mouth full of food. ‘What are we gonna do for the Time Lady’s funeral?’

‘We can’t do a proper Gallifreyan burial, but we can do a pyre.’

‘Time Lady?’ Brax suddenly echoed, looking surprised.

Rose, who was sitting next to Brax, lowered her tone to speak to him. ‘Va'A'gnorn had this Time Lady’s body on display. He said he’d killed her.’

‘Oh,’ Brax muttered.

‘I don’t think I’ve got anythin’ black to wear,’ Jackie muttered.

‘Don’t worry about that. White is the colour for death in Gallifreyan society, but you don’t have to dress up,’ the Doctor said.

‘Hey, Seth’s gonna need some clothes,’ Rose pointed out, looking at the rags the teenager was in.

‘I’ll do that,’ Gwen said helpfully.

‘Me too,’ Jackie added.

The Doctor nodded. ‘I’ll drop you off at a shop. Will have to be an intergalactic human shop from the future, since we can’t go to Earth. I’ll tell you what to look for.’

Jackie looked delighted at the prospect of shopping in a future complex. ‘How much money ‘ave we got?’

‘Don’t worry, I once saved the shop from a squikarn invasion and the owner gave me free shopping for a lifetime there,’ the Doctor said. ‘I’m not quite sure he knew what he was getting himself into with that one.’

Jackie looked beyond elated. ‘You mean we have unlimited shoppin’?’

‘Um, yes?’ the Doctor asked, slightly bewildered.

‘Can I go?’ several people suddenly piped up. The Doctor looked at Brax, who shrugged. Humans.

* * *

‘Granny, I don’t like flowers!’ 

‘Don’t be silly, sweetheart, what little girl doesn’t like flowers?’ Jackie asked, straightening the bow on her granddaughter’s head. Leah just stood there red in the face from embarrassment, dressed in a bright pink dress that was covered in prints of lilies, with the matching bow in her hair.

‘I don’t!’ Leah insisted.

‘But Leah, sweetheart, you look so pretty!’ Jackie insisted.

‘Are you really sure about this?’ Seth asked from close by, emerging from the changing rooms in a salmon pink short-sleeved shirt, with a black bow tie and long tweed shorts.

‘Sweetheart, you look like a very smart young man!’ Jackie insisted. ‘Though you ain’t got any body hair have you? Someone’s gonna need a word about puberty with you,’ she joked, laughing. 

Seth looked bewildered. ‘What’s that?’ he asked.

‘I want this one!’ Leah demanded, pointing at the screen on one of the clothes vending pods. It was a complete outfit; an oversized purple jumper with a cartoon bunny print, stripy leggings, odd socks and low-top black converse.

‘You can’t walk around with odd socks on!’ Jackie said, aghast.

‘Why not?’ Leah wanted to know.

‘Because you’ll look a mess!’

‘So?’ Leah asked seriously.

‘This shirt’s too big for me,’ Seth said suddenly, pulling at the excess hem he had hanging around his midriff.

‘Tuck it in, sweetheart,’ Jackie said.

‘But then I get really big hips,’ Seth replied, doing as instructed to show her.

‘You’ll grow into it!’

‘I’ll what?’ Seth asked, confused.

‘Leah, stop tuggin’ on ya neck line,’ Jackie chastised.

‘I’m gonna get changed!’ Leah decided, and marched into the changing area without another word.

‘Me too,’ Seth agreed.

‘You don’t like this one either?’ Jackie asked.

‘Sorry, I just don’t think it’s very me,’ Seth replied, shrugging a little.

‘You’re gonna ‘ave to make a decision at some point, sweetheart!’ she said, and started looking around. ‘Where’d Alex get to?’

Seth could see the boy hiding underneath a rack, just out of Jackie’s view. When Seth looked at him he closed his eyes; curling up. He was hiding. Tony had already run off to hide twenty minutes ago.

‘He went with Mickey,’ Seth lied.

Jackie sighed. ‘He’d better bring him back soon, he’d look absolutely adorable in these little clothes!’ 

Seth looked at Alex. He buried his head a little more.

‘Definitely went with Mickey,’ Seth concluded.

Leah re-emerged in the outfit she’d wanted, looking very happy. ‘Can I have it?’ she asked her gran.

Jackie pulled a face. ‘Sweetheart, don’t be silly.’

‘Please?’ Leah tried, trying to look sweet and adorable.

‘No.’

‘But I want it!’ Leah complained. ‘Daddy lets me get what I want! He just sits there and nods!’

‘Sweetheart, I’ve seen your daddy on a shoppin’ trip. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen ‘im brain-dead. He’s bloody useless.’

‘Seth.’ Gwen arrived, handing him a chip from a clothes vending pods, her imprint of an outfit on it. ‘Try this.’

‘Okay,’ Seth replied, and disappeared back into the changing area.

‘Auntie Gwen!’ Leah yelled happily, running to her. ‘What do you think?’

‘Love it,’ Gwen said smiling. 

‘Granny won’t let me have it!’ Leah moaned.

‘How much have you bought?’

‘Nothing! She won’t get anything I want!’ Leah complained.

Jackie sighed. ‘All right, have whatever you want!’

Leah shrieked with delight and ran back into the changing area.

‘Oh, Alex, what are you doing down there?’ Gwen asked the boy. Alex made a squeaking noise and attempted to bury himself further in the rack, but Gwen had already picked him up.

Jackie looked delighted. ‘Alex! C’mere, I’ve found the perfect outfit for you!’

Gwen immediately realised her mistake. ‘Oh, I think Mickey wanted to …’

‘C’mon, Alex!’ Jackie said, plucking the boy out of Gwen’s arms. ‘Let’s go and try this on!’

* * *

Jack and Rose cut the Time Lady down, and they all gathered around the body.

‘Where should we bury her?’ Brax asked his brother.

‘I was thinking Emphasia,’ the Doctor said.

Brax nodded. ‘Yes. Good idea.’ He paused, and then spoke again as if having to pluck up the courage beforehand. ‘How did she die?’

The Doctor didn’t look at him. ‘Va'A'gnorn tortured and raped her, then hanged her so she kept dying and regenerating until she ran out of bodies.’

Brax flinched. ‘That’s horrific,’ he muttered.

‘At least we can do a proper funeral now,’ Rose said quietly. ‘With respect.’

Everyone nodded.

* * *

After the pyre had been set up, everyone got changed into funeral clothes, and the Doctor and Brax piloted in tandem to get back to the shop to pick everyone up. This was shortly followed by the transportation of roughly seventy-eight shopping bags into the TARDIS and some very happy and chatty people. Tony was first in.

‘Hey Tony, did you …’ Rose began, but the boy had already run past the console and straight into the corridor at a blisteringly-fast pace. Seconds later Leah burst in, who ran straight to her parents, hugging their legs simultaneously.

‘Please don’t  _ ever  _ make me go shopping with Gran  _ ever  _ again!’ she begged.

‘What?’ the Doctor asked.

‘She tried to put me in flowery dresses and bows!’ Leah wailed. ‘I don’t like flowers or bows! And she made Alex dress up!’

Alex appeared in the doorway, utterly red in the face. He was wearing a spotty t-shirt under a pair of bright orange dungarees, which he was trying to get off but was having very little success. The moment he saw his parents he ran to them, pointing at the catches on the dungarees to ask for help.

Rose looked at the Doctor, who was smirking.

‘That’s your son,’ she reminded him. He immediately wiped the smirk off of his face.

‘That was amazin’!’ Jackie declared as she strolled in, immediately moving to kiss the Doctor on the cheek. ‘Sweetheart, we’ll have to go back with you and get you properly dressed!’

The Doctor looked at his son, and then pulled away to subtly hide Rose for protection. ‘Yeah, we’ll have to,’ he echoed, sounding a little frightened.

Rose sighed, rolling her eyes. ‘Did you get somethin’ for Seth?’ she asked her mum, just as the teenager entered the TARDIS. He was dressed in a leather-style jacket, t-shirt and futuristic jeans with trainers and was carrying several bags. He looked like he’d had a very bad day.

‘I never wanna do that again,’ he declared, dropping all of the bags onto the floor.

‘Don’t be silly, we all had fun, sweetheart,’ Jackie said happily. ‘Now where did Tony run off to? He’s got loads of new stuff!’ she said, and left with her bags to her room.

‘Sorry,’ Rose said seriously to everyone as her mum got out of hearing distance. ‘She was always tryin’ to put me in outfits when I was a kid.’

‘She had me in this weird cotton thing,’ Seth told them.

‘It was a sweatervest,’ Gwen explained.

‘And this other outfit had this shirt that was way too big,’ Seth continued. ‘She said I’d grow into it.’

‘Oh god, I hated it when she said that,’ Rose moaned. ‘That meant everyone was gonna laugh at me in school for six months. Did you get somethin’ for the funeral?’

‘Yeah,’ Seth replied. ‘Where can I change?’

‘Oh yeah, we’ve gotta give you a room.’ Rose looked at the Doctor. He nodded, as Alex tugged on his trousers, and pointed at his dungarees again. Rose dropped to him and undid the catches, with a little difficulty. The boy immediately jumped out of the dungarees and ran off into the depths of the TARDIS.

‘Can you go and get your brother dressed for the funeral?’ Rose asked Leah. Leah nodded, and ran after Alex. Rose turned to Seth and smiled. ‘This way.’

* * *

The Doctor explained the current layout of the TARDIS to Seth as they walked, but also added that the TARDIS had a tendency to rearrange rooms of her own volition for no apparent reason. Seth could only nod and pretend that was normal.

They passed Jackie and Tony on the way, the latter of which was staring at his mother in terror as she tried to get him to dress into something wildly uncool. They finally reached the end of the corridor and the Doctor pointed into the room.

Seth blinked a few times, stunned. It was fairly spacious, with golden walls that seemed to be alive, with some strange liquid gold substance coursing through. It had a very large, comfortable-looking bed, a bedside table, a big rectangle black thing in the corner, with a strange black box sat below. There were a couple of doors leading off, which Rose explained as a walk-in wardrobe and an ensuite bathroom.

‘Wait,’ Seth said, spinning on his heel inside the room. ‘I get my own room?’

Rose nodded, grinning. ‘Yeah. Me and Jack designed it while you were shoppin’. If you don’t like anythin’ you can change it.’

‘It’s as close to a 21st century human set up as can be managed with the Tardis customisation,’ the Doctor added, and pointed at Rose. ‘She made me humanise the whole Tardis system.’

‘Oh,’ Seth muttered, utterly bewildered. He dropped to sit down on the bed, testing it. He nearly fell off. ‘It’s huge, and really bouncy,’ he said, confused.

‘What have you been sleepin’ on before now?’ Rose wondered.

‘I had some wooden planks,’ Seth explained.

‘You slept on wood?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Welcome to a proper bed,’ she said, sitting down beside him. 

‘The Tardis has had her own simulated twenty-four hour day for the 21st century humans for a while now, since they’re always in the Tardis,’ the Doctor explained. ‘Else I found that I tended to forget that they all needed to sleep and they kept walking into walls. But I know you don’t sleep as much as them, so go to bed when you want, but nobody in here is allowed to be awake before 8am or overly-cheerful before 9am. Washing has a manual system, just put it in that,’ – he pointed at some dispensing thing in the wall – ‘press the button and it’ll be done in three seconds.’

‘You don’t hand wash things?’ Seth asked, bewildered.

‘Oh no. It could be fully automatic but humans like to feel they have control over their washing for some reason,’ the Doctor replied, shrugging slightly. Rose kicked him lightly in his good leg. ‘What?’ he asked, bewildered.

Seth looked around the room a bit more, and he caught sight of the weird square things again. ‘What are they?’ he asked, pointing.

‘TV and game console,’ Rose replied. ‘Mickey and Jack’ll show you how they work.’

Seth fell silent, just staring at TV for a moment.

Rose looked at the Doctor, who promptly sat down on the other side of Seth.

‘If there’s too much of a culture shock, let me know,’ the Doctor said. ‘I can put a bit of the year six billion in here for you.’

‘No, it’s great,’ Seth said honestly. ‘It’s just …’

‘What?’ Rose asked.

‘I’m so different.’

‘How so?’

‘I don’t have any of this stuff. I dunno how it works.’

‘We’ll teach you,’ Rose assured him.

‘But I don’t look like anyone either.’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘I look different,’ Seth said, pointing at his face. ‘Everyone else has smaller heads, smaller eyes, thinner necks and no one’s skin is the same colour as mine.’

‘You’re the product of billions of years of evolution,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Your head has had to get bigger to accommodate your larger brain. Your eyes have gotten bigger because humans needed them to be bigger. Your neck is thicker to protect your spine and support your head better. Your ancestors interbred between skin colours of humans and aliens, and that means that you are a completely neutral skin colour.’

‘Jackie put me in shorts and when I came out she said I had no body hair and made this joke about something called puberty,’ Seth muttered. ‘Does that matter?’

‘Again, humanity evolved only to need head hair and eyebrows for aesthetic purposes. In evolution, the only aim is to maximise your chances for breeding. For maximum chances, evolution decided you needed to be good looking to everyone, well-protected from injury, smart, and without unnecessary bits like body hair. You’ve also been through puberty already, you probably weren’t aware of it. It happens younger and quicker for your lot.’

‘She kept saying I’d grow into things too. What does that mean?’

‘Misconception,’ the Doctor said. ‘In the 21st century, humans hit their adult build by age twenty-one. By your time, humans are at that stage by thirteen. She doesn’t know that. You’re taller too, though you’ve been a bit malnourished so you’ve been stunted slightly. You’ve also got a longer lifespan, and stay younger for longer. You evolved, just like you should. Consider yourself an upgrade,’ the Doctor said helpfully. ‘Human point two.’

‘Don’t you ever think that being different is actually important, cos it’s not,’ Rose told him. ‘Sorry about mum. She’s not used to this stuff.’

‘Do you have lyrium?’ the Doctor asked.

Seth nodded. ‘Elliott said everyone did on my home planet. Don’t 21st century humans have lyrium?’

The Doctor shook his head. Seth winced a little more.

‘What’s lyrium?’ Rose asked.

‘It was a year six billion thing, an injection into the bloodstream on birth that stops a lot of diseases,’ the Doctor explained. ‘When Seth gets excited or scared or feels anything to make his blood rush, it shows up as red lines under the skin in his arms and legs.’

‘Oh,’ Rose realised, and caught Seth’s expression. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll talk to everyone so they stop making dumb comments. Just settle in and we’ll deal with everyone else, yeah?’

‘Okay,’ Seth said, and looked up at the Doctor. ‘When’s the funeral?’

‘When everyone’s ready,’ the Doctor replied. ‘No rush.’

* * *

Emphasia was absolutely beautiful.

The Doctor explained to the company that it was one of the few planets left in the universe that was undiscovered by civilisations, and unpopulated by any animal. It was full of amazing and magnificent vegetation, all of which strange and alien and wildly out of control. The red sun was setting on the horizon, bathing the entire place a warm, red glow. He warned them to avoid a few particular plants, and then led them to the pyre that he, Jack, Brax and Rose had put together in their absence. It was in a clear, open space that was surrounded by beautiful, alien flowers.

The Doctor took the honour of lighting the torch, and looked at Brax. 

Brax nodded, resting a hand on his brother’s shoulder. ‘N-cera'qe-ia’zachit-gea-ia ici ce'chira.’

‘N-cera'qe-ia’lola-ia ye wi-alok'mira,’ the Doctor said. 

‘N-cera'qe-ia’gricha-ia terna iviran'kyea.’ 

‘N-cera'qe-ia’veera-gea-ia ici ce wi-aiiw’jajaea.’

‘N-qe, ei'baniora, ei arit aroinab-n.’

‘N-miho ce’celerial-ia’kaiti joh kai cen hira,’ the Doctor completed, stepped forward, and lit the pyre. The fire crept up quickly, until it consumed the wrapped body. Then the Doctor and Brax stepped back, rejoining the humans to watch the unknown Time Lady finally be put to rest.

Jack stepped up to Brax, away from the Doctor. ‘You knew her,’ he concluded in a mutter.

Brax looked at him. ‘Yes,’ he replied honestly.

‘Who is she?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Brax dismissed. ‘I just knew she went to Sirrus and never came back. I’d heard the rumours of what had happened, but I didn’t want to believe them, despite knowing they were probably true.’ He paused, then looked at Jack. ‘Don’t tell Thete this.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because he’ll work out who she is,’ Brax replied.

Jack frowned. ‘But if he knows her, you should tell him.’

‘He doesn’t need to know. To him, she is already dead. I’m not killing her again. He doesn’t deserve that, not now.’

Jack paused, looking at the Doctor, who was surrounded by his family all gazing at the pyre. ‘This is why you were so desperate to keep the Doctor safe,’ he realised.

‘... Yes. I made a promise to his mother when he was young that I would be there for him. A promise I abandoned for a very long time, to his detriment. Ever since I found him again I’ve been trying to honour that promise, in his mother’s memory. But, I must confess … I’m beginning to think he doesn’t need me.’

Jack looked at him seriously, getting what he was inferring. ‘You’re not gonna leave, are you?’

‘I don’t know,’ Brax confessed. ‘But I keep worrying about him and he keeps defying me and doing ridiculous things, somehow managing to get out the other side. I don’t believe he needs me anymore, because he certainly doesn’t listen to anything I say. Perhaps I should leave him to get on with his new life.’

‘That’s just the Doctor, that’s what he does. He ignores people and does his own thing,’ Jack told him firmly. 

‘He listens to you. He listens to Rose.’

‘Doesn’t mean he actually takes any notice,’ Jack replied. ‘He just knows us better. That’s all it is.’

Brax laughed, half-heartedly. ‘I’m his brother. I’ve known him since he was born. Then I abandoned him to his cousins, and now he knows you better than he knows me. And you clearly know him better than I do too.’

‘Being there for him isn’t about worrying about him, it’s about being someone who’s around. It would devastate him if you left. Talk to him,’ Jack persisted. ‘He’ll want you to stay. I guarantee.’

‘Around,’ Brax scoffed. ‘I was never around and that’s what he’s adapted to. That’s why he didn’t cry out for me.’

‘What?’ Jack asked.

Brax sighed. ‘His flashback. His cousins used to torment him, and Glospin was the ringleader. Once, Glospin and the others found this old abandoned shobogan mine, dragged him there and threw him in. They locked the door so he couldn’t get out. He cried out for help. Did you notice? He didn’t call my name, because he knew I was never around. And now I am, he doesn’t need me anymore, and he never cries out for me. He learnt that I will never come.’

‘Talk to him,’ Jack reinforced.

Brax shook his head. ‘I have worse news to deliver to him than that.’

‘What?’

‘I can’t tell you,’ Brax said. ‘I need to wait for the right moment. It’s not now.’

‘Do I need to worry?’ Jack asked seriously.

‘You need to be yourself. Be someone he trusts; someone he relies on. He’s going to be devastated and he will need you.’

Jack’s eyes narrowed. ‘Tell me what’s going on.’

Brax looked at him briefly, shook his head, and didn’t say another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N-cera'qe-ia’zachit-gea-ia ici ce'chira.   
> N-cera'qe-ia’lola-ia ye wi-alok'mira.   
> N-cera'qe-ia’gricha-ia terna iviran'kyea.   
> N-cera'qe-ia’veera-gea-ia ici ce wi-aiiw’jajaea.   
> N-qe, ei'baniora, ei arit aroinab-n.   
> N-miho ce’celerial-ia’kaiti joh kai cen hira.
> 
> All those thunders in the sun  
> All those moments of painful fun  
> All those poems with empty verse  
> All those flights in a tiny universe  
> That, I remember, and I will never forget  
> How the stars shined when we first met


	34. Having a Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack throws a party just as Martha goes into labour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny smattering of smut towards the end of this one, consider yourself warned. This is also the longest denouement in history ...

The Doctor had moaned but nobody had paid any attention when Brax finally got him into the scanner to check him. He was given a clean bill of health, before being promptly wrestled to a bed by Martha to redo the bandages on his leg as Rose had her scan.

‘How’s Zak doing?’ the Doctor wondered, looking at the next bed. His echo just laid there, intubated and covered in tape.

‘He’s fine, he’s in an induced coma to stop his brain swelling,’ Martha told him, her eyes turning a little hollow at the sight of Zak. ‘There’s a lot of damage, but Brax is positive that his Gallifreyan genetics should be able to sort everything out fairly fast, there doesn’t seem to be anything long term, but we’ll see.’ 

The Doctor noted her awkward look. ‘What?’

‘Sorry,’ she said, smiling at him sheepishly. ‘Last time I saw him like that, he’d tried to kill himself. I still thought he was you. It brings back the feelings.’

‘Ah,’ the Doctor muttered, looking at Zak again. ‘I’m sorry for putting you all in that position.’

‘I know. It doesn’t matter. Just ... don’t ever jump off of a roof, okay?’

‘I’ll try not to,’ the Doctor jested as she finished bandaging.

‘Do you need anymore painkillers?’ 

‘No,’ he replied, just as two children came running to him.

‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,’ Leah said repeatedly, climbing up onto the bed and helping her brother up at the same time. She crawled to him and hugged him tightly. ‘Can I tell you about Colossus Major now?’ 

The Doctor glanced at Martha, who smiled and moved away to check Zak.

‘Go on,’ he invited, looking back at his daughter.

‘We got there, and people were being taken by Creipian spiders underground, but then Uncle Brax got taken, and then I jumped down the hole cos I was brave and Daddy, their nest was  _ huge! _ ’ she explained at a million miles per hour, her hands stretching at wide as they could go to emphasise just how huge the nest was. ‘Like, a billion miles wide! And the spiders were as big as Cretonix spaceships! I escaped cos I ran really fast, but the spiders got Uncle Brax, he got dragged away, but I wasn’t screaming cos I wasn’t scared!’

He laughed. ‘Did you call pest control?’

‘Yeah! But they said they’d gas the whole nest and loads of people were down there, and I said, “no! You can’t do that!” cos I wasn’t gonna let ‘em kill the people!’ she said melodramatically. ‘So me and Alex made rastinate all by ourselves, and by the time we got back everyone was being taken! I hadda tell ‘em what to do and everything!’

‘Did you tell them to get off of the ground?’

‘Yeah, like you would! But then Alex got taken, so I went down into the nest and loads kept attacking me but I got through ‘em all! I still wasn’t scared!’

Her dad’s eyes shot open, looking at Alex. ‘Wait. What?’

She ignored him. ‘Then I found Uncle Brax and Alex and I took ‘em straight to the nest where the queen was. Then we made a plan and I ran up the queen’s leg and we beat it! But … umm …. Alex is all right now, mmkay? See?’ She pointed at the boy.

‘No. What? Alex is okay ...  _ now?’ _ he echoed, checking his son, who was smiling happily.

‘Yeah. He got poisoned, but Uncle Brax went and got the future you and you fixed him,’ Leah replied.

‘No. Wait. Alex was poisoned by a Creipian spider ... how exactly?’

‘When I was on the Queen’s head getting the bomb on her …’

‘What!?’

‘ … She grabbed me in her leg and I dropped the sonic, Alex ran to get it and blasted the Queen but one spider got him and bit him,’ she said, pointing at Alex’s leg. 

‘Show me,’ the Doctor said. Alex promptly showed him the back of his leg, where there was a healed-up scar. ‘Uncle Brax got me from the future?’

Leah nodded. ‘You came and you fixed him.’

‘Oh,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘I need a word with your Uncle ... He blocked off your bond to me, didn’t he?’

‘Yeah, and Alex. He thought you’d go mental.’

He nodded, and reached out to her and Alex’s temples in turn. Leah suddenly smiled, holding her chest. ‘You feel warmer than usual,’ she told him, before she suddenly pulled a face and grabbed her leg.

‘What’s wrong?’ the Doctor asked.

‘My leg’s gone all tingly and weird.’

Her dad smiled. ‘Hey, you’re starting to feel me,’ he told her, indicating his heavily-bandaged thigh.

‘The bond?’ Leah asked, wide-eyed.

‘Yep. Your connection with me is getting stronger as your brain matures,’ he said.

‘Wow!’ Leah said. ‘Hey, will I get a bond with Uncle Brax?’

‘You want one?’

‘Yeah. How do you make one?’

‘By doing a ceremony, of sorts,’ he answered.

‘When can we do it?’

‘Anytime, really,’ the Doctor said. ‘I’ll talk to your uncle.’

Alex shuffled up to him, hugging him. ‘Don’t be angry, Daddy,’ he said quietly.

‘Yeah,’ Leah said, still holding her leg. ‘It wasn’t Uncle Brax’s fault, mmkay? Don’t yell at him with that scary face you do.’

He half-smiled at that. ‘I won’t.’

* * *

After the Doctor, Rose and Seth had been scanned and Zak had been tended to, the Doctor piloted to Colossus Major to see Hunfrid.

The Doctor entered the tiny village on his own with a large black box under his arm, looking around. It was in the process of being rebuilt, with people constructing huts and others filling in holes in the ground. Of course, it didn’t take him long to spot Hunfrid – the giant helping to move building materials for the villagers.

‘Hunfrid!’ he shouted. The giant turned, surprised, and frowned. 

‘Sorry,’ the Doctor said quickly, realising his face-change since he last met Hunfrid. ‘It’s me, the Doctor.’

Hunfrid smiled. ‘Doctor!’ he greeted, walking to him. ‘It is so good to see you.’

‘Are you okay? Everything cleared up?’ the Doctor asked Hunfrid.

Hunfrid nodded. ‘Yes, thank you.’

‘Anything I can do?’

‘We are coping well, thank you. There were no fatalities, we are just filling up the caverns the spiders made. Your daughter was fantastic.’

The Doctor grinned. ‘She is, isn’t she? Nothing to do with me,’ he joked, shrugging. ‘I wanted to thank you for looking after her.’

‘She looked after herself,’ Hunfrid assured him. 

‘I also wanted to thank you for raising Leya,’ the Doctor said. ‘I know I sent her to you without any warning. But I knew she’d be safe here.’

‘We were happy to have the privilege of raising her,’ Hunfrid assured him. ‘She was treated as a daughter of everyone in the village. Though I had feared that you had permanently died; I am relieved this is not the case.’

‘Me too,’ the Doctor joked. ‘She’s absolutely fine, she’s helping to better the universe. The escape pod she came on that caused the spider infestation should be devoid of anything that could affect Colossus now, just let it lay there.’

Hunfrid nodded, and hesitated slightly. ‘How … How is your son?’

The Doctor smiled. ‘He’s fine. Recovered.’

Hunfrid sagged, relieved. ‘I am very happy to hear that. And thank you for coming when I asked.’

‘You can ask for anything, you know that,’ the Doctor said. ‘I owe you more than my life. Here.’ He set down the large black box he was holding on the ground. ‘This has a direct link to the Tardis. It’s Hunfrid size. Call me anytime you need me. And I don’t hand these out lightly.’

‘Thank you,’ Hunfrid said, picking up the box between thumb and forefinger to examine it.

‘I’d better get back,’ the Doctor said, gesturing to the TARDIS a little way behind him. ‘I’ll see you again.’

Hunfrid nodded. ‘Good travels to you, Doctor.’

* * *

Everyone ended up congregating in the living area. Jack had taken his mind off of Zak by making himself busy with appropriating everyone’s music players to show Seth some music. The teenager, who had never heard that sort of music before perked up quite considerably, and the event had quickly developed into an impromptu party just after the children went to bed. Jack had, of course, quickly made drinks available, and configured the lights in ‘party mode’ himself. He could be very efficient for parties when he wanted to, the Doctor noted.

A few hours later, and most people were drunk and dancing. The Doctor and Brax were sat on the sofa, watching the humans making complete idiots out of themselves. 

‘Babya light up mah world like nobody elsh! The way that choo flip your hair getsh me overwhelmed! But when choo shmile at the ground it ain’t hard ta-tell, choo don’t know-oh-oh! YA DON’T KNOW YA BEAUTIFUL!’ Rose screamed. ‘NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA!’

‘Is this normal!?’ Brax shouted to his brother over the noise.

‘Pretty much!’ the Doctor responded, watching his wife in the middle of a series of violent dance moves. He looked at Brax. ‘When were you going to tell me about Alex!?’

‘What!?’

‘Alex!’

Brax looked a bit guilty. He said something quietly, which the Doctor managed to decipher as an apology. But before they got anywhere, Jack appeared.

‘Hey!’ the immortal said, dropping to sit next to him. ‘Having fun!?’

‘You’re still sober!’ the Doctor realised. ‘Your blood must be about seventy percent proof!’

‘Probably is!’ Jack admitted. ‘Hey, Rose was talking to me about you earlier! Well, she’s not talking, she’s more droning, but I speak drunk!’

‘What was she saying!?’

‘She said “I feel guilty for getting him shot”!’ Jack replied. ‘It was something like that, anyway! Either that or she wants the guttering insured!’

‘But that’s ridiculous!’

Jack just shrugged and stood up again. ‘Just warning you! She’s done the singing bit! She’ll hit the crying bit soon! Then probably the sex bit! Then the unconscious bit! She’s got a drunk process!’

‘Thanks!’ the Doctor yelled insincerely as he disappeared, and looked back at Brax, the song ending. ‘Now you’ve had time to think.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Brax insisted. 

‘I don’t mind now, because you saved him, but tell me upfront next time, would you?’ the Doctor asked seriously.

‘I will,’ Brax replied, nodding as Taylor Swift started up.

The Doctor had to raise his voice again, his throat becoming raw. ‘Oh, Leah, wants to bond with you!’

‘What!?’

‘Leah wants to bond with you!’

‘Oh!’

‘Do you want to!?’

‘Of course, if she wants to!’

‘Good!’

‘Look, there’s something you need to know!’ Brax shouted.

‘What!?’

‘When I found your future self, he was –’

‘Doctah!’ Rose suddenly shrieked in delight, stumbling towards him and grabbing his hands. ‘Come’n dansh!’

The Doctor shrugged and pointed at his leg, which was propped up on the table. ‘Can’t!’ he replied.

‘Awwh!’ she said, dropping down to sit next to him, picking up his arm and holding it around her, snuggling into him. ‘Am shorry!’

‘What for!?’

‘For gettin’ you shot!’

‘You weren’t the one that shot me!’ the Doctor insisted.

‘But I wash in your body, ‘n I got you shot cosh I didn’t run fasht enough! Then I got you hung … hanged … hung!’

‘I pretty sure they’d have shot me anyway!’ the Doctor told her. ‘And it’s not like I haven’t been hanged before!’

Rose looked up at his neck, which was still a bit bruised. She ran her hand over it, before she began to tremble, and then abruptly started to sob.

‘I love ya!’ she said through tears. ‘You’re mah besht friend ana love choo sho mush!’

He wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her head. Across the room he could see Jack looking at him, smirking. He just rolled his eyes and kissed Rose’s forehead impulsively. 

‘I jusht meshed up!’ Rose sobbed.

‘You didn’t mess up anything! You were brilliant!’ the Doctor insisted.

She looked up at him, her drunken eyes struggling to focus. She leaned forward and tried to kiss him, but mostly missed. To help her, he took her face gently and guided her lips to his. She stayed there, too drunk to even use her tongue. She tasted of Peach Schnapps, the Doctor noted. She finally seemed to accumulate enough energy to pull away from him, struggling upright and grabbing his arm, pulling him up and nearly falling over in the process. ‘C’mon,’ she said.

The Doctor looked at Brax, who shrugged and gestured for him to leave.

‘Wait!’ he said, and Brax obediently handed him his crutch. ‘Thanks!’ he said, and was quickly dragged out of the room and into the corridor. There Rose pushed him against the wall and cupped his face in both her hands. She kissed him again – this time with a little more success in her aim.

‘Can we …?’ Rose ventured, nodding to their room. ‘Jusht us.’

‘You’re a bit drunk. Well, a  _ lot  _ drunk,’ the Doctor amended. ‘Let me get you a nullifier ...’

‘Am fine,’ she said, giggled, took hold of his tie and pulled him into their room. 

He closed the door behind them, but Jack seemed to have devised a way to get the music pumping into the room. The Time Lord had no  _ idea  _ how to turn it off. But Rose barely seemed to notice the music, pushing him to sit down on the bed. Her push was so hard that he fell back completely and yelped as pain shot through his leg.

Rose’s hand went to her mouth. ‘Oh god, shorry!’

‘S’ok,’ he breathed.

‘Dun’t hafta do thish,’ she said. ‘Jusht shay you don’t wanna if it hurshts.’

‘No, I’m fine,’ he insisted.

‘Okay,’ she said, moving to straddle him. She unhooked his tie and tried to undo the buttons on his shirt, but he ended up having to do them for her. After another struggle she pulled down his trousers, slipping in her hand to hold him as she began to kiss him, starting near his groin and working her way up to his neck, slowly. She gave him a drunken smile as she reached his face, one hand still holding him and the other buried in his chest hair. She kissed him fully on the lips, and moved to lick his earlobe. 

Seconds later she stopped, and fell quiet.

‘Rose,’ he prompted as the music continued to blare. 

She emitted a gentle snore from next to his right ear.

‘You’re asleep,’ he realised out loud. ‘You’re actually asleep.’

She snored a bit more.

He groaned, trying to roll her off of him, but stopped abruptly when his leg flared with pain. It quickly became clear that she was in such a position that any movement was going to cause her to put a fair amount of her body weight on his leg. 

He was stuck underneath her.

‘Oh, Rose,’ he moaned as she continued to snore. He sighed, at least managing to get her hand out of his boxers and her hair out of his face as for a moment he just laid there, staring at the ceiling, wondering what to do.

Finally, he decided to reach for her pocket to extract her phone, swallowing his pride and sending a message to the only person he felt he could rely on in this situation.

**Help. D**

He sent the message, and waited. Roughly thirty seconds later, there was a knock on the door.

‘Doc?’

‘Help,’ the Doctor said, and the door opened. 

Jack took one look at the situation, and immediately burst out laughing. ‘Oh my god!’ he cried.

‘Jack!’ the Doctor moaned. ‘She passed out and I can’t get her off. Stop laughing.’

The immortal didn’t stop laughing, but he did pull off the unconscious human to allow the Doctor to move. The Time Lord managed to get up with a small moan of pain, redressing himself.

‘I can’t believe she actually enjoys being in this state,’ the Doctor muttered, staring at his wife lying there, snoring and drooling slightly.

'Yeah, like you've never been drunk and enjoyed it,' Jack replied facetiously, adjusting Rose to be more comfortable on the bed.

The Doctor didn’t get the chance to say anything else as Martha suddenly appeared in the doorway in her pyjamas, holding her belly.

‘Where’s Mickey?’ she asked weakly.

‘At the party …’ the Doctor said and frowned. ‘Are you alright?’

‘My waters broke a few hours ago,’ she said. ‘I’ve started contracting ... ’

The Doctor nodded. ‘We’ll get you scanned. Jack,’ he turned to the immortal, ‘you’d better let Mickey know, and find someone who isn’t drunk.’

Jack gave a mock salute, and left.

‘Is Rose all right?’ Martha asked seriously, staring at the woman.

The Doctor shrugged. ‘Jack’s having a party,’ he said to explain everything. ‘C’mon.’


	35. How to be a Parent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martha gives birth and Mickey seeks advice from the Doctor on parenthood. Brax struggles to understand the concept of human childbirth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The little discussion in the middle Rose and the Doctor have about memories is a reference to the previous in this series, Mind Games.

The scan had revealed that Martha was progressing through labour very fast. She was already contracting every five minutes and was at five centimetres dilation.

Brax was helping, and Mickey had been found. The Doctor had given him a nullifier to get rid of the effect of the alcohol and since he’d come out of his drunken stupor he’d sat by the bed holding his wife’s hand, looking beyond horrified at his situation. Dad-shock, the Doctor recalled from his time with Donna. That pretty much summed it up. Mickey was just realising that soon he was going to have a baby to be completely responsible for.

Once he’d finished Martha’s examination and given her something to allow her to drift for a while, he took a seat next to the wide-eyed man.

‘How are you?’ the Doctor tried. ‘Looking forward to your little human?’

Mickey looked at him. ‘God, this is really happenin’, innit?’

‘Yep,’ the Doctor replied, popping the p.

Mickey looked back at Martha, and then at the Doctor. ‘What was it like?’

‘What?’

‘When Leah was born?’

The Doctor shrugged a little. ‘It was sort of like the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan played with the Smurfs theme tune.’

Mickey stared at him.

‘Then after a few hours it’s done and you eventually realise that the little screaming purple fleshy thing covered in gooey stuff that just came out of that woman is actually your responsibility, and is completely helpless and reliant on you, and it’s going to rule the rest of your life. I don’t think me and Rose slept properly for four months. Leah just kept screaming, pooing and crying. I couldn’t have a minute to myself, and that wasn’t just the lack of sleep, it was because every minute of every day I was still thinking about her. Even when I was _ asleep  _ I was dreaming about her. You’d think it was better when Leah was asleep, but nope, I was completely paranoid and had to constantly run in and out to check she was still breathing. I didn’t have enough multitasking ability to pay any attention to Rose, I was just infatuated with this little screamy foot-long thing.’

Mickey stared at him some more.

‘Then of course, after a while you  _ think  _ you’re getting used to it, but then suddenly they’re walking and talking and you find yourself on your hands and knees baby-proofing an alien time machine, wondering just  _ how  _ you got there. Then they get a bit taller and a bit more annoying when they won’t stop talking, and they start forming opinions about everything. Then they get even taller and they realise that you’re a complete idiot that has no idea what they’re doing, and your darling child begins to use that to turn you into a shell of the person you once were by leeching off of your very soul.’

‘Doctor …’

‘I used to be able to walk into a room and sit down. Now, I walk into a room, check for hazards that could hurt Leah or Alex, calculate all risk factors and remove all variables that could cause an accident, and  _ then  _ sit down, even if I’m not with them. I know where every baby-changing facility is in Cardiff. I can skip Double Dutch and hula hoop. I know at least fifteen combination outfits for the baby Annabell toy and I know that one of my birthday Beanie Babies is a bear called Eggnog. I’ve been in Mothercare and had lengthy discussions with old ladies about how cute my children are, and my personal nappy changing record is 17.8 seconds. I spend most evenings putting Elsa and Anna back into the toy box after another hearty rendition of Let It Go in Gallifreyan, and the sonic now has a specific setting for mending interactive toys.’

‘Doctor!’

The Doctor looked at him. ‘What?’

‘Tell me the good bit!’

‘That  _ was  _ the good bit.’

‘Then what’s the bad bit?’ Mickey almost squeaked.

‘The bad bit is that I can’t help but love every minute of it, despite knowing how bad it is for my health,’ the Doctor finished.

Mickey looked nothing short of shell-shocked.

The Doctor squeezed his shoulder, standing up. ‘Are you gonna be okay here?’

Mickey nodded, still holding Martha’s hand.

‘I’ll back in ten minutes,’

‘Where are you going?’ he asked anxiously.

The Doctor gestured vaguely to the door. ‘Rose.’

* * *

Rose was exactly where he’d left her, snoring and drooling onto the sheets. He immediately gave her a nullifier. It took some doing, but eventually he managed to get her more comfortable and wipe the drool off of her face.

He then sat by her, patiently waiting for her to wake up, at least until he heard the cry of the four-month-old Kiana from the adjoining nursery. He got up and hopped into the room. 

Years of parenting assured the Time Lord that she needed changing, so he carefully picked her up and put her on the changing table. He paused for a moment, mentally starting his stopwatch before he launched into action. He pulled off the old nappy, wiped, lotioned and got on a new one before he stopped the timer in his head.

‘17.6 seconds!’ he congratulated himself, beaming. She didn’t look impressed. She was still crying. 

He picked her up and held her, but she just seemed to cry even more.

‘Um, food?’ he wondered, and retrieved some milk from the dispenser Rose had made him rig up. She shied away from the top. ‘Okay, not food … attention!’ the Doctor said, and commenced pulling a myriad of stupid faces at her that had never failed to make Leah and Alex giggle. However, she just cried even harder.

‘Doctor?’ Rose moaned, and he moved back into their bedroom to see her sitting up, looking confused.

‘Hey,’ he said over the crying girl. ‘Do you want a doner kebab?’

‘Um, what?’

‘Doner kebab? Is it appealing to you right now?’

‘Ugh, no.’

‘Then you’re not drunk,’ the Doctor concluded, grinning. ‘Welcome back.’

‘Thanks,’ she supposed, looking at Kiana. ‘What’s wrong with her?’

He dropped to sit down beside Rose, and handed her Kiana. Almost immediately the crying stopped. Rose frowned, and handed her back. She began crying again as soon as she was in the Doctor’s arms.

The Doctor returned her to Rose’s arms before the screaming ended up bursting their eardrums. ‘I really don’t think she likes me,’ he said.

‘Got a bit of the Master in her,’ Rose supposed, snuggling the four-month-old who was now making a stream of non-sensical noises.

‘Hey, I never got the chance to thank you,’ the Doctor said.

‘For what?’

‘You saved my life. The regeneration.’

Rose smiled. ‘Yeah, I did, didn’t I?’ she said, laughing. ‘How are you?’

‘What?’

‘Your memories,’ Rose clarified. ‘I really screwed around with them. How are they?’

He shrugged. ‘I can remember you being there at a lot of crucial points in my life, but I know they’re false memories. I can’t remember what actually happened, just that you were there.’ He paused, thinking about that. ‘I shot you.’

Rose frowned, before she realised. ‘Oh yeah. Forgot about that.’

‘You forgot?’

‘It’s fine. It was the Time War.’

‘But I still shot you at point-blank range,’ the Doctor muttered.

‘It’s fine, nothin’ happened. And I did practically make you do it.’

‘No,  _ I  _ did it,’ he insisted.

‘You were strugglin’ to come to terms with how Jelpax died, and then I irritated you. I was basically askin’ for it. Don’t worry about it. I told you, I forgive you.’

He gave a half-smile. He then moved in and held her carefully to avoid squashing Kiana. ‘You’re brilliant,’ he said.

She giggled and kissed him. 

‘Oh, Martha’s in labour,’ he told her. ‘About halfway.’

Rose sat up immediately. ‘Oh my god, why didn’t you say!? I’m s’posed to be her birth partner!’

She handed Kiana back, who began screaming again, and rushed out of the door. The Doctor sighed and took Kiana back to her crib. As soon as she was out of his arms she settled, drifted, and he watched her go to sleep.

He tried to dismiss all the thoughts about having another child, and went back to the infirmary.

* * *

Brax could do nothing than twiddle his thumbs as the labour progressed. His brother was in the infirmary with Rose, Mickey and Martha, and seemed to know absolutely everything about human childbirth, and was handling it with ease. Several times Brax had offered to help, but once again he found himself surplus to requirements and in the way. So he had resigned to join Jack in the corridor outside. Inside they could hear high-pitched screaming, some of it Mickey’s, but most of it Martha’s. Her cries were little more than disturbing to Brax.

‘That sounds horrific,’ the Time Lord said to the Immortal. ‘What’s actually happening in there?’

‘Basically, inside Martha a little humanoid has grown, and now it’s time to get them out. This means a lot of screaming and pushing through a shit-ton of pain.’

‘Pushing the little human? From where? To where?’

Jack looked at him, smirking slightly.

‘What?’ Brax asked.

There was another scream from inside the infirmary. Brax tried to ignore it.

‘Sorry, nothing,’ Jack replied, and gestured down to indicate where the little humanoid came out. 

Brax caught on, and looked even more confused. ‘How big is this little humanoid?’ he asked.

Jack indicated a vague size with his hands.

Brax stared at him. ‘But that’s not even physically possible, surely?’

Jack smirked again. ‘Oh, women can do anything, remember that one.’

‘That’s ridiculous,’ Brax muttered, still trying to comprehend the sizes and failing miserably.

‘That’s childbirth,’ Jack said.

‘Rose and Thete did this?’

‘Twice,’ Jack replied. 

‘Good grief.’

Another scream. They both flinched.

‘How come you don’t know any of this?’ Jack asked.

‘I’ve never looked much into humanoid physiology, not at reproduction, anyway,’ Brax confessed.

‘The Doctor spent ages going through every humanoid physiology book in the library while Rose was pregnant. He didn’t want Rose to find out that he was having to do so much research. He got me to keep quizzing him from his books, and made me sit with him through just about every sitcom focusing on family ever made, taking notes.’

‘He didn’t know about it?’

‘No. He told me he’d never even seen a baby until he first came to Earth, and he thought it was some kinda sub-species,’ Jack replied, laughing.

‘But he seems so … in control,’ Brax said, confused.

‘That’s what he  _ wants  _ you to think,’ Jack replied. ‘Didn’t fool Rose though. She caught us in series two of Outnumbered.’ He paused, looking at Brax. ‘It doesn’t matter that you don’t know.’

‘I think it does,’ Brax murmured.

‘You can learn.’

‘Do you think Thete and Rose will do it again?’

Jack pulled a face. ‘No. We found out when Leah arrived that the Doctor feels the contractions in labour, something to do with the bond, I think. He was in a lot of pain. When Alex was born, the Shadow Proclamation had affected the pregnancy somehow. He came prematurely, and she was in labour for ages. Alex nearly died, and the Doctor was in so much pain he told Jackie that he wasn’t going to make it. He nearly went into shock because we didn’t have any painkillers that wouldn’t be guaranteed not to harm Alex through the bond. He felt all of the pain. He screamed all night.’

‘The Shadow Proclamation did something?’

‘Yeah.’ Jack shrugged a little. ‘We don’t know what, but we know they wanted Alex so they sped up the pregnancy. She went from seven weeks to twenty-nine weeks in two months. Might’ve had something to do with why it hurt the Doctor so much, but he’s not willing to risk another one to find out. They both swore they’d never have another child, in case it got even worse next time.’

‘I see,’ Brax murmured, stroking his chin. Then with that, he left without another word.

* * *

Another ten minutes passed, and Jack had started pacing before Ianto arrived.

‘How is she?’ the Welshman asked.

‘She seems okay. The Doctor’s in there with her,’ Jack said, kissing him. ‘How’s everyone else?’

‘They’d all passed out by about halfway through Bohemian Rhapsody,’ Ianto told him. 

‘We’re gonna have a lot of hangover cure to hand out in the morning,’ Jack mused, before they sank into silence, slightly tense. Then, Jack realised, it really  _ was  _ complete silence. He stood to attention, taking Ianto’s hand.

‘Is it done?’ Ianto asked.

‘Dunno, I can’t hear the ba–’

It was interrupted by a little cry from beyond the door – it was the baby. They only had to wait a few seconds for the door to open, and Rose poked her head out.

‘It’s a boy!’ she announced.

Jack and Ianto both gave a whoop. ‘Is Martha okay?’ Jack asked quickly.

‘Yeah, she’s fine. Mickey fainted when he plopped out though. Back in a sec!’

She disappeared again, leaving Jack and Ianto to celebrate. 

* * *

Ten minutes later, and Rose let Jack and Ianto into the infirmary to meet the sight of two parents doting over their newborn son, who was swaddled in cloth and against his mother’s chest.

‘Aww!’ Jack enthused, moving forward. ‘Can I hold him?’

‘Yeah,’ an exhausted Martha replied, and Jack took the boy out of his mother’s arm carefully, holding him as the Doctor returned from checking Zak.

‘What’s his name?’ Ianto asked.

‘Andrew,’ Martha replied.

Jack smiled, rocking the new baby. ‘God, he’s so cute. Hey, Doc, is he the first full human to be born on the Tardis?’

The Doctor smiled. ‘Yep.’

‘Birth certificate’s gonna be interesting,’ Jack joked as Rose moved to Andrew, running a finger down his face. ‘Place of birth, time machine.’

‘Yeah, there’s a point, what’s his birthday?’ Rose wondered, looking at her husband.

‘Call it … 20th of August,’ the Doctor answered after a moment’s thought.

‘Thank you,’ Martha suddenly said, looking at the Doctor. 

The Doctor gave a mock salute. ‘You’re welcome.’

Rose sighed loudly, still staring at the infant.

‘What?’ the Doctor asked.

‘I want another one,’ Rose confessed, and immediately stiffened, hand over her mouth as she realised what she’d said. After a few, silent moments, she dared to look at the Doctor, who was staring at her in horror.

‘Rose …’ he began nervously, looking like a wounded puppy.

‘I want one too,’ Jack suddenly said, clearly attempting to stop the conversation he could see heading their way, still holding the infant. ‘He’s so cute!’ 

The Doctor ignored him, still staring at Rose as her already pink cheeks quickly burned a deep, ferocious red. ‘You want another baby,’ he muttered weakly.

Rose took one glance at the staring crowd, took his hand and pulled him out of the infirmary. By now, she’d learnt how to deal with the Doctor in shock. She took him straight to the kitchen, sat him down, made him some tea and gave him some biscuits. He was still staring at her.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ she said, taking his hand.

‘You want another baby,’ he said again, not even registering the tea.

‘No, I don’t,’ she said quickly. 

‘But you said it.’

‘I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.’

‘But you want another baby.’

‘I’m sorry, it just came out, okay?’

‘Rose,’ he said again firmly. 

‘No, you know I didn’t mean it. He’s just so cute, I just said it, I’m sorry.’

‘I can’t do that again, I just can’t,’ he muttered.

‘I know, and I’m not askin’ you to. Hey, we’re one unit. If we don’t agree it doesn’t happen, yeah?’

He sighed, head in his hands. He didn’t answer that.

Rose stared at him. ‘Oh my god,’ she realised. ‘You want another baby!’

‘Oh,  _ please  _ don’t say it out loud,’ he moaned.

‘I don’t believe this,’ Rose muttered.

‘Don’t think I’m enjoying it either,’ the Doctor responded.

‘What the hell do we do?’

He paused, staring at her. ‘I have no idea.’

* * *

Brax had spent a while in the library, checking books on humanoids. Once he was done he headed to the gallifreyan section, and there, to his surprise, he found Tony sitting in a dark corner hunched over a particularly large and old-looking book, a datapad to his right. Brax approached the boy, calling out to him.

Tony panicked, slamming the book shut and looking up at Brax, guilty.

‘What are you doing?’ Brax wondered. ‘Shouldn’t you be asleep?’

‘Nothing, I’m going,’ Tony muttered, scooping up his datapad and pocketing it. ‘S-sorry,’ the ten-year-old said quickly, and ran out of the door faster than lightning.

Brax stared after him for a moment, before stooping to pick up the book. It was in gallifreyan.

**Ce’Timeia-ia’Raika: Ce’negai’onia piha oela-gea-ia**

Time Lord Anatomy and Physiology: A brief guide for learners.

Frowning, Brax put the book back on the shelf. Why would Tony, a human boy without any understanding of gallifreyan, be looking at it?

Brax’s curiosity was piqued, so he checked the database to see how many times the book had been taken out. Almost every night for the past month.

He had to talk to Tony about this.

He went straight to the boy’s room. The door was open, and he caught the sound of the boy’s voice, apparently talking to someone.

‘I’m so sorry! Braxiatel saw me! What do we do? D’you think he’ll tell the Doctor?’

‘Oh, I have no doubt,’ another voice said, and to his complete horror, Brax knew that voice. He remembered it from a month or so ago. That was the voice of Toby, the man who had abducted Jack and Alex, and tortured the Doctor.

What the  _ hell  _ was he doing in the TARDIS?

He had to lock down the room and tell Thete. He made to turn, when suddenly he heard Toby’s voice again, cold and commanding.

‘Stop right there, Braxiatel.’

Brax froze, momentarily stunned before Toby stepped out of the door, raised a fist, and without any hesitation punched Brax in the shoulder, straight into the vulnerable nerve cluster.

The last thing Brax saw was Toby’s sick smile as he collapsed to the floor and blacked out.


	36. Ambush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Brax gone AWOL a rogue control disc sends the travellers back to Earth, where they find humanity is in serious trouble.

It was 3am when the Doctor and Rose finally got into bed. For a few moments they just laid there, staring at the ceiling.

‘Do you wanna …?’ Rose suddenly ventured, trailing off.

‘I’m fertile now,’ the Doctor said shortly.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Rose murmured, deflated. ‘We could … play around?’

There was a pause, they looked at each other.

‘Best not,’ the Doctor muttered.

‘You’re probably right,’ Rose said, and wrapped her arms around him. ‘Night.’

‘Night.’

Rose kept awake, watching him for a while, her hand automatically fiddling with his hair, It had been quite a long time since he’d slept peacefully. But after ten minutes he was gone, and didn’t seem to be having any nightmares.

She moved her head to rest on his chest to hear his dual heartbeats, and she closed her eyes.

* * *

The next morning, everyone woke up with quite stupendous hangovers, not helped by the ever-energetic Leah and the new, high-pitched baby who was struggling to adapt to his new life separated from his mother. The Doctor had drained his bottle of hangover cure trying to help everyone, who had then all congregated in the infirmary to welcome the new arrival. 

As they encircled Martha’s bed, the Doctor spotted Jack sitting next to Zak, holding his hand.

‘Okay?’ the Time Lord wondered, moving to him.

‘Yeah. How’s he doing?’ Jack asked.

‘Fine,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Should be able to wake him up soon.’

‘Have we told Leya?’

The Doctor pulled a face. ‘No. But I don’t think there’s any point in worrying her. I’ll send a message that he’s here and we’ll take him back when he’s better. I think he’d prefer it that way.’

Jack nodded. ‘He would,’ he agreed, paused, and looked at the Doctor. ‘Hey, has Brax talked to you yet?’

The Doctor frowned. ‘No. Why?’

‘He said he had something to tell you,’ Jack replied.

The Doctor shrugged. ‘Haven’t seen him since last night.’

‘You should find him, it seemed pretty important,’ Jack said.

The Doctor nodded, looking at Zak again. ‘Are you going to be okay?’

‘Fine,’ Jack replied, still cradling Zak’s hand. ‘Go and find Brax.’

* * *

The Doctor checked all the usual spots - Brax’s room, the library, the kitchen, the lab - he even checked the botanical gardens. He then checked the kid’s room, tried shouting for him, and eventually met Rose and Jack in the corridor, baffled.

‘I can’t find Brax anywhere,’ he said.

‘Passenger list?’ Rose suggested. He nodded and led them back to the console room, where he began to check the monitor. As the results processed, he drew back, scratching his head and looking at Jack. Jack was being unusually quiet.

‘What is it?’ he asked the immortal.

Jack winced. ‘Look, I think he’s gone.’

‘What?’ the Doctor asked, frowning.

‘I think he felt like you didn’t need him. He must’ve left.’

‘No,’ the Doctor said, shaking his head. ‘He promised to bond with Leah. He wouldn’t just go without telling me.’

Jack shrugged. ‘Dunno, that’s just what he said. Said you didn’t need him anymore and he felt a bit useless.’

‘But that’s stupid,’ Rose said. ‘He told us how to put the Doctor in the same body. He’s done loads of stuff.’

Jack shrugged again, and said no more.

‘Well, wherever he went he can’t have gone far,’ the Doctor said, moving to the monitor. ‘We’re in the vortex. He couldn’t have piloted anywhere without everyone knowing about it. He must be on the Tardis.’

The results finally loaded, and the Doctor frowned.

‘What?’ Rose asked.

‘His entry’s been deleted from the passenger list.’

‘Can you feel him?’

The Doctor briefly closed his eyes, checking before opening them again. ‘No.’

‘Then where the hell is he?’ Jack asked.

‘I don’t …’ the Doctor began, but was suddenly interrupted by the TARDIS abruptly throwing herself to the left. He grabbed onto Rose and Jack, who in turn held into the console before she stabilised.

‘What the …?’ Jack said quickly, glancing at the Doctor.

The Doctor reached forward to the console, checking the monitor.

‘She’s …’ he began, but once again was interrupted by the TARDIS throwing herself to the right, this time sending them all to the floor. The Doctor barely had a chance to get up before the TARDIS burst into life - the rotor began to pulse with the sound of the ancient engines, but the noise seemed to be horrendous in comparison to the usual groaning.

‘What the hell is going on?’ Jack asked, alarmed as they struggled up. ‘What are you doing?’

The Doctor looked around the console, wide-eyed. ‘I’m not doing anything! She’s piloting herself!’

‘No, wait, she isn’t!’ Rose said quickly, and yanked a shining golden control disc out of the slot on the console. The TARDIS made a noise that sounded like an electronic scream, so high-pitched and loud the three yelled and covered their ears as there was another abrupt jerk, and they all hit the floor again with even more of a clang, the control disc flying out of Rose’s hand. With a final scream, the TARDIS thunked; landing. Almost immediately all of the lights darkened and the emergency lighting came up, masks dropping from the ceiling.

For a moment the three just laid there, bracing themselves in case of another jolt. It didn’t happen. 

The Doctor eventually dared to get up, Jack helping up Rose. The Time Lord limped to the announcer system, holding down the button to talk to all the occupants of the TARDIS. ‘Sorry, I have no idea what’s going on. Check everyone’s okay and hold tight.’ He pulled the monitor to him, and immediately his eyes widened. ‘The Tardis defences have been powered down.’

‘We’ve got no defences?’ Rose asked, alarmed.

‘Barely.’

‘Where are we?’ Jack asked. ‘We’ve landed somewhere.’

The Doctor checked, his frown deepening. ‘We’re on Earth.’ He dived to retrieve the control disc, still where Rose had dropped it. The golden light had gone out now. ‘Someone made a control disc and put it in the Tardis …’

‘But who?’ Jack asked. 

‘Only Brax could do this,’ the Doctor muttered.

The both of them stared at him in disbelief. 

‘Why would he do that?’ Rose asked, holding onto the Doctor’s arm. ‘He knows we can’t go back to Earth, you’re exiled.’

The Doctor clearly didn’t have an answer for her. He checked the monitor again. ‘2014,’ he said. ‘That’s a year after we left.’

He punched up the view of the exterior, and Rose gasped.

They were next to the Thames by the Tower of London. It was raining heavily; the sky grey and cloudy, and the place was almost completely decimated - some bits of it on fire. The London Eye was burnt out, and there wasn’t a single human in sight.

‘What happened?’ Rose croaked.

The Doctor glanced at her, and limped to the door. He opened it. ‘Stay here,’ he told them.

‘Not likely,’ Rose responded, running to follow him as he stepped out of the TARDIS, Jack also in pursuit.

It looked even worse in reality. Westminster Bridge was deserted and falling apart, and there were tens of burnt-out cars on the roads. 

‘Where is everyone?’ Jack asked. ‘What the hell happened?’

Suddenly there was a shriek of something overhead, and they looked to see a spaceship flying overhead, throwing out lasers somewhere over Downing Street.

‘What ship was that?’ Jack asked. 

‘Too fast to tell,’ the Doctor said, frowning. ‘Definitely not from Earth, though.’

‘This is an invasion …?’ Rose half-realised, half-asked. ‘Oh my god.’

‘So where is everyone?’ Jack asked for a third time. ‘Hiding?’

The Doctor quickly pulled out his phone and dialled for Sarah. Jack and Rose watched, anxious as he held it to his ear.

‘Sarah’s phone’s not working,’ the Doctor muttered as a ship streaked by, this time the laserfire powerful enough to shake the ground slightly.

‘We’ve gotta find her,’ Rose said quickly. ‘Get to Ealing.’

The Doctor nodded, and looked back at the TARDIS. ‘We have to cover the Tardis. Without her defenses she won’t survive a direct hit.’

‘Let’s move her, then,’ Rose decided.

‘Where?’ the Doctor asked.

There was a long pause.

‘Torchwood,’ Jack finally said. ‘There’s a defunct Torchwood under the Tate Modern.’

‘Then take everyone there,’ the Doctor replied. ‘I’ll find Sarah.’

‘I’m coming with you,’ Rose said.

‘Daddy!’ Leah called, bursting out of the TARDIS, holding her brother’s hand. ‘Why’d the Tardis go all dark?’

‘Leah, Alex, get back inside the Tardis right now, find everyone,’ the Doctor ordered quickly. ‘Then stay with Uncle Jack.’

He looked at Jack for a confirming nod, but realised the immortal was staring at the Doctor’s chest, horrified. The Doctor looked down. There were two red laser dots hovering directly over his hearts. Nanoseconds later Jack launched himself at the Time Lord, ploughing him into the ground just as two shots exploded out, the sound rippling across the deserted city.

‘Run!’ Jack shouted at Rose, Leah and Alex, the former with her arms around the terrified children.

‘Stay where you are!’ a voice screamed over a loudhailer, as several more laser sights focused on them all. Everyone hesitated before a crowd of UNIT soldiers emerged from seemingly out of nowhere, taking position. Jack stayed resolutely still, protecting the unmoving Doctor despite all of the guns trained on him.

‘Back the hell off!’ he yelled at them.

‘Jack!’ Rose suddenly shrieked. Jack looked at her, and then saw she was staring at the Doctor, on the verge of tears. Jack looked down, and noticed blood creeping out onto the pavement. He’d been hit!?

‘Fuck!’ Jack swore. ‘Doctor!’

‘Move away from him!’ a woman suddenly ordered, striding towards Jack. Jack pulled out his gun, aiming straight at her.

‘Let us go!’ Jack shouted, but UNIT were already moving to grab Rose, Leah and Alex. They tried to flee, but were quickly apprehended, guns to their heads. Jack reaffirmed his grip on his own gun, fuming. ‘Think you’re big, pointing your guns at the heads of  _ children!?’  _ he yelled.

‘Move away from him!’ the woman shrieked again.

‘Jack …’

Jack looked down at the Doctor, stunned. ‘Doctor …’

The Time Lord’s eyes were sunken. He tried to say something else, but his eyes slipped closed.

‘No, don’t you dare, stay with me!’ Jack demanded.

‘Doctor!’ Rose shrieked as she was dragged away. ‘Jack!’

UNIT didn’t hesitate. They pulled her and the kids away, forcing them into the back of a van. The door closed, blocking off her view of the Doctor and Jack. She could hear Jack screaming obscenities. She tried to ram the door, but it was firmly closed.

Leah and Alex ran to her, Leah in tears.

‘Did they shoot Daddy?’ the little girl asked, her voice breaking. Rose couldn’t answer her. Frankly, she didn’t want to, for fear of making it real. So she just kissed them both. She couldn’t believe it. They’d spent months trying to get him to regenerate into the same body, and UNIT had just shot him on the spot.

‘Let us out!’ she demanded, hammering her fist on the door. There was another gunshot, and Jack stopped shouting. Rose gasped, and the kids clung to her even tighter. She could do nothing but stand there, feeling like she was about to throw up before footsteps came towards them.

Fear rising in her, she backed away from the door, pushing Leah and Alex behind her to protect them as the van door opened again and the Doctor was put in with them, his clothes stained red.

‘No, please don’t leave him here like this!’ Rose begged, holding Leah and Alex so they couldn’t see their father. ‘These are his children!’

The apparent lead woman poked her head in. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. The words stunned Rose a little, stopping anything she may have said as some UNIT guards handcuffed the Doctor, securing him to a metal ring on the floor. One of them took his sonic screwdriver from his inside jacket pocket. 

‘Why are you doin’ that?’ Rose demanded to know, looking at the handcuffs. ‘Stop it!’

The woman didn’t answer. The UNIT guards filtered out, and the door was shut behind them. Seconds later, the engine started with a jolt, and they were moving.

‘Oh my god, oh my god,’ Rose whispered, staring at her husband in horror. Finally some sort of rational plan came to mind, and she told the kids to stay put before moving forward and kneeling down next to him. She couldn’t see the telltale signs of regeneration, but it wouldn’t be long.

She rested her fingers on his pulse point, took a breath and closed her eyes.

There was a definite throb.

‘Doctor,’ Rose whispered urgently, grabbing his shoulders to shake him, but he was completely limp. She undid his jacket and shirt, checking his wound. A minute later, she was still looking for it.

There  _ was  _ no wound, she realised. There was red, which definitely looked like blood, but there wasn’t a mark on him. She checked his hearts next. They were both beating, albeit very quietly. Then she realised.

UNIT had just  _ faked  _ his death.

‘Mummy?’ Leah asked quietly. 

‘He’s not dead, Dad’s not dead,’ Rose said quickly, checking his pulse again. Still going. ‘They just faked it. The blood’s not real. He’s okay. Thank god, he’s okay,’ she breathed, kissing his forehead.

Leah and Alex ran over immediately to hug their dad. ‘Daddy, wake up,’ Leah begged. He didn’t.

‘He’ll wake up, he’ll be fine, yeah?’ Rose said, trying to convince herself. ‘We’ve just gotta figure out what’s goin’ on so we can fill him in.’

‘But where are they taking us?’ Leah asked. ‘Aren’t Unit the bad people?’

‘I dunno,’ Rose confessed. ‘But we’re not hurt, so it can’t be for anythin’ that bad, yeah?’

Leah nodded, poking her dad’s cheek. He didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘I’m scared,’ the girl muttered.

‘It’s okay, cos we’re all together and we’re gonna be fine, yeah?’ Rose said, gathering the kids into a hug, kissing them both. ‘Just sit tight, and everything’s gonna be fine.’

* * *

Jack woke up with his usual gasp for air, and quickly focused to see a group of people standing over him - Ianto, Jackie, Gwen and Rhys.

Almost immediately he remembered what had happened, sitting up. ‘We’ve got to stop them!’

‘Jack!’ Ianto said, kneeling down to hold him. ‘What happened?’

‘Where’s Rose and my grandchildren?’ Jackie wailed.

‘They took them, they shot the Doctor and took them, all of them,’ Jack gasped out, struggling to stand up. ‘We’ve gotta go after them!’

‘Who? They  _ shot  _ the Doctor!?’ Gwen asked, terrified.

‘Unit!’ Jack replied, and pointed at the blood stain on the ground. Everyone gasped. ‘This way!’ he shouted, pointing in the direction the van had been.

‘Jack!’ Ianto shouted, grabbing him to stop him. ‘This is stupid, you can’t just …’

‘They  _ took  _ them!’ Jack almost screamed in Ianto’s face. ‘They’ve got him, Rose  _ and  _ the kids! They shot him, Yan!’

‘I know, I’m sorry,’ Ianto said quickly, not letting go. ‘But he’ll regenerate. And they didn’t kill Rose or the kids - they’re wanted for something. You can’t just charge in. We need to think about this. We’ve got some time.’

Jack fell still, his steely expression faltering. Ianto was right. Of course he was right. He sagged, and thought again. ‘Okay,’ he said after a moment. ‘We need to get everyone and the Tardis to the Tate’s Torchwood and figure out something to save them.’

Everyone nodded and scattered to implement the plan as Jack looked at the direction the van had been. He could see tyre marks, and there was a path of smeared blood from the Doctor’s body being dragged across the concrete.

After all they’d been through. After prison, slavery, running and hiding, being captured and nearly dying about seventy-eight times. One poxy little ambush had taken the Doctor and his family away.

‘They won’t get away with this. I’ll find you,’ Jack muttered to the blood trail, and ran back into the TARDIS.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you see how nice I was? Did you see where I could have ended it? :D That wasn't so bad! :D
> 
> Thanks for reading the endless saga that is the Destiny universe, I really hope you enjoyed it :) If you're new to the Destiny 'verse and want to know more, I'd recommend checking out this series' page for a link to a doc which has extended summaries for all of them so far.
> 
> Next up ... 'Insurgent':
> 
> With UNIT having faked his death, the Doctor goes undercover and is forced to lie to all of his friends in order to save Earth. But this time, his adversaries are quite literally out of his childhood nightmares, and his family are in the worst danger they’ve ever been - under severe threat from the xenophobic human race.


End file.
